


Sides Of The Coin

by TariSilmarwen



Series: Tyrantverse [1]
Category: Teen Titans (Animated Series)
Genre: (mostly), Canon-Typical Violence, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, F/M, Gen, Minor cursing, Post-Season/Series 05 Finale, Post-Trouble in Tokyo, Teen Tyrants, inspired by TTG!#48, red raven is everyone's toxic friend, some innuendos, the tyrants are very naughty and have no inhibitions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2019-11-25
Packaged: 2021-02-07 15:53:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 88,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21460600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TariSilmarwen/pseuds/TariSilmarwen
Summary: They are the Teen Tyrants, vicious criminals, ruthless thieves, and everything opposite from their heroic counterparts, the Titans. And they're coming to play in our universe for a while.
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Raven, Dick Grayson/Koriand'r, Garfield Logan & Victor Stone, Garfield Logan/Raven, Raven & Victor Stone
Series: Tyrantverse [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1547044
Comments: 8
Kudos: 31





	1. Multiverse

**Author's Note:**

> Based on and inspired by the events of tie-in comic Teen Titans Go! #48.
> 
> For those of you who haven't read it, a brief summary; Raven tries to send Kilowatt, one of the Honorary Titans from Season Five, home to his own dimension but ends up sending him to a universe where the Titans are all evil instead. This version of the team is called the Teen Tyrants and is comprised of evil versions of Robin, Raven, Starfire, Speedy, and Aqualad. (There weren't evil versions of Cyborg or Beast Boy, sadly, though I have rectified that and added my own interpretations into this fic.) Regular Raven heard Kilowatt's telepathic calls for help from the other universe, opened up an inter-dimensional portal, and the Teen Titans faced off against the Teen Tyrants in order to rescue their friend. The fight is rather short and is interrupted quickly by the Brotherhood of Justice (a heroic version of, obviously, the Brotherhood of Evil), and Robin has Raven lock the "door" behind them. (They are then able to send Kilowatt home to the right universe.)
> 
> I was always a little miffed we didn't get more out of the story so this fic just sort of wound up happening. Enjoy!

Red Robin lay in bed with his arms crossed behind his neck, staring up at the ceiling. The plain gray walls were blank, dimly-lit with the standard florescent lighting of the Tower. Perfect for staring at when your mind was on other things. It was helped by the low, steady thrum of the air-conditioner, which he could feel blowing slightly on him. The chilly breeze prickled his skin with goosebumps. He briefly considered reaching down for his shirt, which was on the floor along with several other articles of clothing. (Not all of them his.) He ruled against it though, deciding he was too comfortable where he was to move right then, even if his mind _was_ restless with its preoccupations.

Shifting a little he eased his head to a better angle.

He was thinking back to an event two months ago, when the Tyrants had caught some wandering blue smurf with electric powers, brought him back to the Tower, and discovered the existence of the multiverse. It had been an interesting, if ultimately fruitless encounter. They opened a door to another reality. Met their Goody Do-Gooder alternate selves. If not for the untimely and inconvenient interruption of the Brotherhood of Justice, they might have been able to cross over and wreck havoc in the other universe for a while. Red Robin was still extremely sore that they hadn't gotten the chance to do so.

Even though they'd been busy for the past few weeks, on the run from the Brotherhood, fighting back the squeaky-clean heroes of their reality until they finally won back their Tower, the encounter had stuck with him, and he rolled over and over it in his head. He snickered internally at the ridiculous brightly-colored costume of his counterpart, wondered what the inside of their Tower looked like, ran his mental gaze over the curves of that purple-clad Tamaranian bombshell.

"What are you thinking about?" a low sultry voice breathed in his ear.

Red Robin looked down and smiled at his own alien hottie. Blackfire lay curled up next to him, ebony hair spread across the pillow and falling around her bare shoulders, the sheets draping over her naked body.

"The cute redhead in the other universe who passed for you." he answered truthfully.

"Who?" she asked, tilting her head at him.

He unhooked his arms and brought them down to cuddle her, his fingers rubbing the smooth skin of her back. "You remember two months back, when we had that close encounter with a group of do-rights who called themselves the Teen Titans and were supposed to be some alternate reality version of us?"

Blackfire looked bored. "To be honest, nothing really stands the out. I was a little indisposed by the Brotherhood at the time."

Red Robin squinted at the sudden reminder. "Oh yeah, that's right... you were captured. Forgot about that." Waving a hand he continued, "Anyway, Rae opened up a portal to this other dimension or something. And _we_ were on the other side. The other us." He grinned at her. "You were hot."

"Am I not always 'hot'?" she crooned at him.

"'course." He leaned down and planted a sloppy kiss on her. His tongue probed the sweet insides of her mouth for a few moments, and then their faces parted.

Her heather eyes smoldered at him from under her dark lashes. "I shall bet that your counterpart was exceedingly handsome and appealing as well."

"Nah, you wouldn't have liked him, 'Fire. Kid was dressed like a traffic light and had his hair all gel-ed up in these dumb-looking spikes."

She made a face. "Ugh."

"Thought so." Red Robin leaned his head back on the pillow. "Haven't been able to get the experience out of my mind. I keep wondering what's it's like on the other side. Keep imagining how easy it would be to sneak around there and take it over. We didn't get a chance to terrorize that world before the Brotherhood showed up but I totally think we could've done it. Those 'Titans' were real pushovers."

"I heard."

"I think we should find a way to get back," he declared suddenly, straightening up a little in the bed. "Open the door again. We could pop over for a few hours, just the two of us..." He stroked her face gently. "Scare some civilians, cause some destruction, break a few windows, steal a few priceless gems..." He winked at her. "And I want to seduce the other you."

Blackfire propped her chin up. "Are you certain we can even get back? Red Raven said the only way she was able to do it the first time was because the little electric firefly was boosting her powers."

He shrugged. "I'll talk to Cyber-Vile in the morning, see if he's got anything that'll help. Rae's had him working on something for us. He has a lot of orders to fill for other villains too so he might be really busy but who knows?" He cupped his hand under her chin. "Maybe we'll get lucky," he purred.

"Is that an invitation, Boy Scoundrel?"

"Could be."

She crawled up on him. "It is most enthusiastically accepted," she breathed seductively.

-TT-

The lab was always dark. A few corners and spaces were bathed in a weak, cold blue light from various monitors and computer screens, constantly scrolling numbers and data, but the rest of the room crouched in deep, permanent shadow. Red Robin stood in the doorway and blinked, his eyes adjusting to the darkness. He could vaguely make out the forms of the worktables and desks, and on them, glinting glass beakers and test tubes, blinking devices he couldn't identify, and mechanical parts of every size and shape imaginable. He stepped into the room and immediately stubbed his toe on something. When he was done cursing he calmed down and picked his way across the lab, being careful not to run into anything else in the dark. It was quiet, save for his footsteps and the soft hum of equipment.

At the far side, hunched over one of the worktables, was a large bulky shape. It was humanoid, sitting facing away from him. But at its head level, about where its left eye would be, he could see a familiar small red light. Cyber-Vile was bent over his latest project, tools in hand. Wires and tiny bits of metal were strewn out on the counter in front of him. He worked methodically, welding something together. The torch sent up yellow sparks that played across the teen's half-human, half-robotic features.

Red Robin grinned and came up beside the figure. "Hey Cy," he greeted.

At the other boy's hello, the cyborg turned his head slightly, and slid his gaze over to look at him. The light played across the human side of his face.

"Red Robin," he said simply. His gaze slid back to what he was doing.

The cyborg's tone was flat and emotionless and his voice had an unsettling metallic echo under it. Red Robin felt his skin crawl at the sound, but shook his uneasiness off and leaned in for a better look at Cyber-Vile's welding. "What are you working on?" he asked.

Without bothering to look at him again, Cyber-Vile replied, "The satellite transmitter array for one of my clients is broken. I am repairing it."

"I see." Straightening back up, the Teen Tyrant inquired, "So, how's that security system Raven commissioned coming along?"

"It is completed."

"Really?" Red Robin said, pleasantly surprised. "That's great! I'll take it you'll be by soon to install it in the Tower?"

"Correct." Cyber-Vile paused his work a moment, evaluating. There was a long silent pause behind him. The half-robot checked his sensory implants. Noting that Red Robin was still there, his logic circuits whirred a moment. "Observation: That is not the reason you came " he deduced.

The boy scratched at the back of his neck. "Well, yeah actually, there was something else..." He got right to the point. "What do you know about the multiverse?"

Cyber-Vile searched his memory banks a moment. "The multiverse: Considered to be an infinite number of alternate realities, with many different versions and variations of events, people, and places," he recited. "First suggested by physicist Emmerson S. Clark of STAR Labs in 1987."

"Right." Red Robin nodded. "You wouldn't happen to have any tech dealing with that lying around would you? Like say," he trailed, waving a hand around the lab, "a way to travel to another one of those universes?"

Cyber-Vile scooted back and then rose noiselessly from his chair. "Perhaps," he said, going stiffly to one of his computers. He raised his arm and brought the screen to life, then scrolled through the display. Red Robin crossed his arms and leaned against a lab table, waiting. He let his eyes wander while Cyber-Vile searched.

They'd found this place while in hiding from the Brotherhood. Slinking through the shadows of dark alleys in the dingier parts of town (having been forcibly kicked out of their own Tower after the battle had taken a sudden turn for the worse), they had stumbled fortuitously across the lab and, after some persuasion, its occupant had let them in. Cyber-Vile was an inventor and mechanic with lucrative underground dealings in criminal activity around the country and thus, no friend to the Brotherhood of Justice. He had sheltered the Tyrants for about a week, his highly advanced shields and security systems keeping them hidden from their enemies, until they'd rallied themselves and taken back their Tower, and in that week he had become a valuable ally. Plus, they finally knew where the boisterous cybernetic hero from the "Teen Titans" in the other reality had come from.

Except of course, their cyborg was anything but boisterous. He was stoic. Calculating. Impartial to nearly everything around him. There was little difference, Red Robin thought uncomfortably, between the sentient Cyber-Vile and the mindless robotic drones that helped him in his lab.

The half-robot angled his body towards him, pulling the Tyrant out of his thoughts.

"There is one item in my current inventory that might be of use to you," Cyber-Vile told him, pointing to a wire diagram on his display. "It is a simple dimensional portal ripper, but when used in conjunction with a reality calibration device, it may serve your purpose."

The Tyrant rubbed his chin in thought. "Reality calibration device... what about, say..." He brought himself upright, moving off from leaning on the table. "...a mystical magic mirror?" he finished.

Cyber-Vile analyzed the suggestion. "If it is capable of tuning in to the specific signatures of different universes..."

"Oh, it's _plenty_ capable, trust me. I've seen it in action."

The cyborg tilted his head. "Then it is an adequate substitute. It will be an unstable combination however. Recommendation: Do not attempt it lightly."

"Of course," Red Robin assured him, grateful that his mask hid the shifty aside glance he made. "We'll be _very_ careful."

When he looked up again, the cyborg's artificial eye was trained on him, almost suspiciously. "Deduction: Red Raven has no knowledge of your intentions regarding her mirror," Cyber-Vile concluded coolly. "And will not appreciate its being stolen."

"I wasn't going to _steal_ it," Red Robin defended, lying smoothly through his teeth. "She's taking us all on a little field trip to a reality where we're all spineless do-gooders."

Cyber-Vile stared at him a long moment. The chips in his brain measured the Tyrant's vocal inflection, heart rate, and perspiration levels.

"My sensors indicate an 81.25% chance of falsehood in your statement," he said. "However, my programming dictates that it is not my concern." He moved past Red Robin to one of the worktables, and lifted a cloth covering a small, box-like piece of machinery. Cyber-Vile gestured at it. "This is the device you seek."

The boy rubbed his hands. "Great. Thanks Cy. I'll take it with me when I leave."

Cyber-Vile looked at him impassively. "Very well." He turned and went back to his current workdesk, and sat back down.

Red Robin picked up the portal ripper. It wasn't very large—spread comfortably across both his palms—and had a display that flipped up. The Tyrant tucked it under his arm and headed for the door. He paused in the doorway a moment, furrowing his eyebrows, then looked back. "You know, you're always working on something when I come over," he commented, switching the portal ripper to his other arm. "Don't you ever sleep?"

The half-robot turned his neck slightly, gave him an expressionless look over his shoulder with his cybernetic eye. "Sleep is not required," he said, and the cold computerized inflection of his voice made his words seem all the more eerie. Red Robin quickly faced forward and slipped out through the doorway.

The hallway was only a little less dark than the main lab. Very faint sunlight filtered in from the high windows, and many beady red robot eyes glimmered in the shadow. Some of the drones glanced up to watch him pass, but most went on with their business.

He kicked one of them out of the way as he reached for the door handle. He couldn't help one last look back at his surroundings. Cyber-Vile's drones worked meticulously and untiringly, skittering along the floor and up the walls like giant mechanical spiders.

He shuddered, goosebumps running up his arms. "This place gives me the creeps..." he muttered to himself as he yanked open the door, letting in the chilly morning air.

-TT-

Red Raven's low laughter drifted to his ears. He rounded the corner and found her standing outside OPS, deep in conversation with Arsenal and Tempest. Hoping to slip by unnoticed he hung close to the wall as he headed for the hallway intersection.

It didn't work.

"Well, looks like _someone's_ finally out of his cave," Tempest commented, crossing his arms and giving an amused smirk. "Where've you been all day?"

Red Robin smothered his annoyance, facing his teammates with a smarmy smile as though nothing was out of the ordinary.

"Getting a jump on our backlog of things to steal," he said, inconspicuously attempting to keep the portal ripper covered by his cape. "Unlike some other people around here," he accused, sending a pointed look at Arsenal.

"Hey, I've been doing my part same as everyone," the archer immediately protested. Red Robin just rolled his eyes. Arsenal glared but to deflect attention from his potential failings as a thief, he reached for his belt and dug around in a back pocket. "Which reminds me," he said, pulling out a ruby-laden silver necklace and holding it out to Red Raven. "Here. Consider it an early birthday present."

The demoness took the necklace gently in her hands, admiring the rubies and the tiny diamonds surrounding them. "You shouldn't have," she drolled with her trademark dry humor. Closing her fist around the necklace, she fingered the edge of her hood. "So..." she said casually, glancing at each of the boys in turn. "You guys taking me anywhere... _special_ for my birthday?" she probed, eyes coming to rest on Red Robin.

He tried not to flinch or look guilty or nervous under her watch. In spite of the distraction this conversation was and the delay it was causing him in getting to the empath's room to, ah, "borrow" her mirror, Robin feigned a grin and mustered up some false excitement to project to her. "Wait'll you see it love," he told her, gesturing emphatically. "Tempest picked out this really nice restaurant on the pier."

"At six o' clock," Arsenal picked up, "Red Robin, Blackfire, and I descend on the building like Hell's angels, commandeer the whole place, and lock the doors. We relieve the patrons of their cash and valuables, kick them outside, and have the whole place to ourselves the rest of the night."

"Sounds like a blast." She put her hands on her hips and cast a proud eye on them. "I've trained you well my loyal minions," she joked. More seriously she added, with her eyes narrowed and her mouth pulled down into a stern frown, "You'd better not get carried away with the raid you're making on the HIVE Hero Academy and forget all about my big day."

Tempest looked put out. "Come on Raven! You know we'd never forget your birthday."

"Yeah," agreed Arsenal. He punched her lightly on the shoulder. "What was that speech you gave your old man again right before you kicked him out? 'This is my territory Father, my reality to conquer, and you can't have any part of it.' Something like that right? Followed by the most awesome evil laughter ever?"

Red Raven looked impressed and a little flattered. "You have a good memory."

Throughout the whole conversation, Red Robin itched desperately to slip away. But he felt like, no he _knew_ Red Raven was watching him out of the corner of her eye, sensing the mental walls he'd put up and no doubt suspicious. If he tried to leave now it would be like painting a big "I'M UP TO NO GOOD." sign on his forehead. He kept a fake mask over his expression, kept his emotions shielded. Living with the empath had taught him one thing; that you had to be good at hiding your thoughts and feelings if you wanted any damn privacy.

His rescue came suddenly, storming through the OPS doors as they parted for her with a loud _hiss!_

"_There _you all are!" Blackfire growled. She put her hands on her hips, stormy brows scrunching over her eyes furiously. "Must I be the only one attending to her duties around here?" she demanded. She leveled her glare at Arsenal and he became the full target for her ire. "Do you realize the stabilizer for the T-ship that you promised to fix is still lying in pieces on the hanger floor?"

Arsenal's hackles raised irritably and he rounded on her. "Cool your jets _Princess_, I was just on my way down," he snapped.

"Indeed!" she sniffed. Even though he was thicker-set and had a good inch on her she wasn't intimidated in the least. "And I suppose neither of you have bothered to investigate that odious smell in the basement either," she huffed, her irate look bouncing to Tempest.

Tempest raised his hook, about ready to tell her off, when Red Raven interrupted.

"Sadly boys, she's right. It's been a fun conversation and all, but it's time to get back to work." The demoness tucked her new necklace up her sleeve for temporary safe-keeping. "We hit the Metropolitan Art House at five. Be ready."

Arsenal sighed and motioned to his hydrokinetic friend. "Well come on, we'd better go see what Her Highness is griping about."

The two boys walked off, down the hall Red Robin had come by. Blackfire followed their progress with a scowl. It dropped off her face as soon as they were a good distance away, and her hands went up into fists by her chest as she turned to Red Robin, eager to greet him.

He shook his head, then jerked it towards Red Raven, his expression conveying a rather anxious "Please distract her." request. Blackfire looked confused a moment, but then seemed to get his drift. She stepped forward and took Red Raven's hands fretfully.

"Raven, there is a most urgent matter that I must discuss with you," she told the empath.

"Oh?"

In her periphery vision she saw Red Robin quietly sneaking off and silently wished him luck. She cleared her throat. To Red Raven, she explained, "I am concerned about that animal boy that does the hanging out by the back door. He frightens me and I do not like him being there."

The other girl snorted. "Oh Blackfire, Changeling is _harmless_. Give him a side of beef and a rub on the head and he's happy."

"But he snarls at me!" the Tamaranian protested, throwing her arms out in distressed gestures. "And he never lets me dispose of the garbage properly, always pouncing on me and ripping open the bags with his horrible claws. He comes _this_ close to mauling me!"

Red Raven rubbed the back of her head thoughtfully. "Hmm... That's too bad. He _adores_ me. And I like having him around." She gave a wry smile. "He makes a good guard dog."

"True, but..." Blackfire whined uncertainly.

The demoness sighed. "Look, if it makes you feel better, I'll talk to him about the whole pouncing issue this afternoon. Happy?"

Blackfire's expression brightened. "Oh... thank you Red Raven!"

Red Raven sent an exasperated look skyward. "I swear, for a ruthless villainess you can be such a pansy sometimes..."

-TT-

Blackfire slipped furtively through the door to her room and quickly slid it shut behind her. She sat on the bed for a little while, but eventually she got too nervous, stood up and paced, wringing her hands worriedly. She walked back and forth and tried not to think about the number of things that could go wrong when one entered Red Raven's room without permission. (The demoness was extremely protective of her privacy and wouldn't hesitate to give intruders a telekinetic beatdown, but that wasn't the worst way an unauthorized visit could end. The room itself held some... nasty surprises.) Blackfire's anxiety increased second by second but just when she felt she would burst from the tension she finally heard a noise outside her bedroom. She jerked herself around and exhaled in relief upon seeing Red Robin squeezing through her half-opened door.

She rushed up to him, evil excitement gleaming in her eyes. "You were successful?" she asked.

He closed the door firmly. He held the portal ripper under one arm and with the other he withdrew something else from hiding under his dark cape. He held the object up, sending her a grin.

Raven's mirror gleamed innocently in his hand.

"Bingo."


	2. Rifts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We drop in on our original Titans for a while. :)

It was morning worlds away, and a chill salty breeze drifted up from the ocean, ruffling her purple hair and her cloak.

Raven relished the calm and the quiet as she hovered in lotus position above the Tower's roof, slowly chanting her mantra under her breath. Peaceful moments like this were precious to her. It helped her... keep calm. Sort herself out. Although she didn't have to meditate as much to keep control of her powers now, a good year after the day she and the Titans had fought her father, she still liked to take the time out to clear her mind and calm her senses. Besides, in a Tower full of super-powered adolescents, she needed to get away from the craziness every once in a while. She breathed in and out in steady, controlled intervals. Discordant chaos raged somewhere below her, probably OPS, and probably the fault of either Beast Boy or Cyborg or both. She felt it through her empathy, but it wasn't close enough to affect her.

Her empathic senses buzzed abruptly. She felt a familiar mind drawing near, one she knew quite well. She had already identified it before she heard the click of the door into the Tower.

The door swung open with a squeal and Robin stepped out, shutting the door behind him. He brushed himself off as he came up to edge of the roof near where Raven was floating, to look out over the glistening sunlit bay.

Raven cracked open an eye at him.

"What brings you up here?" she asked.

"Needed some fresh air," he explained. "And to get away from the food fight Cyborg and Beast Boy were having," he added, straightening his collar.

_Is that what that is?_, Raven thought, feeling the violent undercurrent of swirling emotions below them. Her other eye opened and she looked about the roof. Robin appeared to be missing a frequent attachment to his arm.

"Where's Starfire?"

"Trying to break it up."

Ah.

Raven squinted, peering down at Robin from above. Little flecks of food seemed to be stuck to his uniform.

"…Is that tofu in your hair?"

"Don't ask," he said, flicking the bit away with his fingers. A moment passed, Raven returning quietly to her meditation and Robin looking out towards the glittering silver skyscrapers in the distance. Robin glanced over at the hovering Raven. "So… how do you feel about it?" he asked.

She opened her eyes again. "About what?"

"Your birthday. It's tomorrow, right?" he clarified.

"Gee, I hadn't even noticed," she said dryly.

He frowned at her, looking slightly put out. "Come on Raven, be serious," he said.

Her expression softened. "I am. For once… I didn't flinch when I turned over the calendar this month." Her hands came out of their meditative position and she put them softly in her lap, gazing up at the clear blue sky. A year ago, that sky had been darkened by eclipse, turned blood red by her father's power. She never dreamed she would ever see it its normal blue again, or even see it at all. Her voice was quiet as she said, "All my life I've dreaded my birthday. It's… still a little weird not having to be afraid of it anymore."

She sent a suspicious, narrowed look at Robin.

"You're not throwing me another surprise party are you?"

Robin coughed awkwardly into his hand, and shifted a little on his feet. "No no, just a regular party this time," he told her. "No tricks or drama, just a straightforward private celebration."

He could almost have sworn Raven muttered something like, "I wouldn't count on that." under her breath but it was a little too quiet for him to make out, so he didn't comment on it.

Clearing his throat again he asked, "Any plans for tomorrow?"

"I'm not going to be late for my own birthday party if that's what you're asking," Raven joked.

Robin sent her a teasing grin. "I heard Beast Boy's taking you out to lunch."

Raven peered at him impassively out of the corner of her eye. "And if he is?" she challenged, one eyebrow rising.

The Boy Wonder frowned at Raven's effective deflection of his teasing. He sighed. "Just don't… hurt him much," he told her, his expression pinched and worried, the edges of his mask furrowed over his eyes.

The empath uncurled her legs and crossed her arms in front of her chest, though she didn't descend fully to the roof. "What's _that_ supposed to mean?" she demanded.

Robin flinched and took a step back, putting his hands up. "Just that you have this tendency to beat up on him when he's annoying you," he explained quickly. "And you like to make cutting sarcastic remarks that may or may not be damaging to people's self-esteems. I'm just…" He stopped and sighed, pulling on the roots of his hair. "Cautioning you to be sensitive. Try not to say or do anything that will really upset him. Okay?" he implored.

Raven resumed her lotus position. "Didn't know you were so worried about us having fights and couple drama," she said, giving him a wry half-grin. "I'm touched."

"Actually I was more concerned about how awkward it would make your birthday party if you two ended your date on a bad note," Robin confessed, scratching the back of his head. "But yeah, that too." He lowered his hand. "You're still pretty inexperienced at the whole romantic relationships thing."

"Like _you're_ one to talk Mr. I-Can't-Confess-My-Painfully-Obvious-_Feeeeeelings,_" Raven shot back, rolling her eyes. "Have fun on your date with Starfire by the way."

"Thanks."

As if on cue, the door squealed open, and Robin and Raven's heads both turned to see Starfire standing in the doorway to the Tower.

Starfire was even _more_ covered in bits of food than Robin had been, and her hair was frazzled and even a little bit singed on top of that. Half-cooked egg dripped down her skin and a green glop that was obviously Tamaranian in origin caked her front.

"I believe… I have successfully put an end to the conflict," she announced breathlessly, rubbing the glop off her face.

Raven exchanged a look with Robin.

"Do I _want_ to know?"

"Probably not," he told her. He stepped over to Starfire and put a hand on her arm. "You okay?" he asked in concern.

"I am in satisfactory condition," she assured him. She wrinkled her nose. "Though in need of a washing," she added. "I set Beast Boy and Cyborg to clean up the mess."

"Good," Robin told her, brushing a clump of food off her shoulder. "Go ahead and get cleaned up yourself Star, I'll check on Cyborg and Beast Boy. Meet me down in the garage at eleven?" he said, giving her a shy smile.

She returned the smile, her whole expression brightening. "I shall!" she declared animatedly. She turned, feet leaving the ground as she floated back down the stairwell.

Robin followed, turning his head back briefly to say, "See you later Raven."

"See you."

_Click!_

Raven sighed in contentment as silence returned to the rooftop. Her eyes closed and her senses cleared.

"Azarath… Metrion… Zinthos…" she murmured. "Azarath… Metrion… Zinthos…"

Her mind wandered, in spite of herself. She thought about her birthday tomorrow. How she could look to it in anticipation instead of fear. It was freeing. Liberating. She didn't have to worry so much about keeping control of her emotions, keeping her demonic side under wraps. She was still very reserved and quiet—that part of her personality hadn't changed—but it felt nice to be able to show a slightly greater range of feelings than she could before. Affection being one of the newest. She could still remember the look of slack-jawed disbelief on Beast Boy's face when she'd offhandly told him she maybe kind of liked him, and then the bone-crushing hug he'd given her when she'd consented to their first date. They were still navigating their awkward, newfound relationship, but so far they seemed to be doing okay—

There was a sudden ringing sensation.

Raven cringed, her concentration broken. The ringing wasn't in her ears, wasn't even a sound. It felt more like it was inside her head, growing gradually stronger and stronger and then—

A sudden knife-like pain cut through her head, and Raven cried out as what felt like the world's worst headache pounded at her skull.

-TT-

A loud thunder-clap sounded across the street. The air seemed to rip apart and a wide circular tear opened up in the intersection. A couple drivers swerved their cars off course in surprise. Two red-clad figures stumbled through the rift in realities, which sealed up immediately behind them with a noisy _whoosh!_

"Woo-hoo!" Red Robin crowed in triumph as he and Blackfire regained their footing. "Worked like a charm, just like I told you it would." He sent the alien girl a teasing grin. "And you thought we'd get lost in the multiverse trying to find this reality."

Blackfire beamed, a wild joyful look on her face as she held a hand to her rapidly-beating heart. "That was… thrilling!" she exclaimed breathlessly. She clapped her hands, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet. "Please, let us do it again!" she begged.

He patted her shoulder. "Later 'Fire. Later. We'll have time to go universe-hopping after we're done here."

She pouted, jutting her lip out and crossing her arms in disappointment.

He laughed, and reached for her hand, pulling her off towards a side street. "C'mon, the day's young and we've got a lot of mischief to make."

Blackfire giggled as they ducked into a back alleyway. "I know the first thing I wish to do," she told him.

"Yeah?"

Giving a mischievous smirk, Blackfire aimed a fist back out towards the street and shot off a glowing green starbolt.

_Boom!_

A parked car went up in a small explosion, and several other vehicles' alarms went off.

Squealing in delight, Blackfire yanked Red Robin further down the alley, out of sight. The two darted around trash cans, dumpsters, and litter, and their mad dash eventually ended with Red Robin pinned up against the brick wall with Blackfire's lips sealed over his in a heavy make-out session.

Not a bad way to start off, if he said so himself.

-TT-

Raven stalked through the hallway and punched the button to the common room irritably. It slid open with a hiss that made her grimace, the pain in her head reacting to the noise. She stepped through the doorway. Her violet eyes swept over the room coolly.

Food was splayed everywhere. On the kitchen counters, on the tables, the floor, the windows, the couch, even—Raven noticed giving a wary look upwards—on the ceiling. From the look of it, the fight had started in the kitchen (that was where most of the mess was congregated), moved into the living area (a couple of the tables had been overturned, obviously used for cover), and then ended near the front windows (across which was splattered more of Starfire's green Tamaranian… whatever it was). Several pieces of furniture were smoking and there was a large soot mark on the carpet in the center of the room. It looked as though Starfire had put a stop to the food fight by firing off a massive starbolt right into the midst of it, scattering food and gunk everywhere.

Which was, ironically, exactly what had happened.

Beast Boy and Cyborg each had a sponge and a washcloth in hand. Cyborg was wiping up one of the counters while Beast Boy was furiously scrubbing away at a food stain on the window. Both were coated in food particles (though neither to the extent of Robin or Starfire) and sniping at each other across the room.

"Dude, why'd you have to throw the peanut butter?" Beast Boy complained, rubbing with all his might, to slow progress.

"Why did _you_ have to spray the fake-eggs everywhere?" Cyborg grumbled back in response.

Raven watched them passively a moment, then swept straight into the kitchen and began yanking open the cabinet doors.

"Hey Raven!" Beast Boy chirped brightly, his whole demeanor cheering up.

"Hi," Raven muttered shortly, distracted and digging through the cabinet.

Noting her grouchy tone, Cyborg nervously paused in his clean-up.

"Uh… you okay?" he asked her hesitantly.

She shut a cabinet door forcefully, though not enough to slam it. "Where's the aspirin?" she demanded.

"It's on the top shelf of the far right pantry, in the corner," Beast Boy called back to her over his shoulder. "I had to move it 'cause Silkie was getting into the medicine bottles and painkillers do _weird_ things to him," he explained.

Raven looked where the changeling told her and found what she sought almost immediately, and shook out two pills from the bottle. Grabbing a glass from the wash rack she filled it from the tap, tossed the pills to the back of her throat, and washed them down with the water. She swallowed heavily, and then leaned her hands on the counter.

It still felt like someone was taking a sledgehammer to her skull.

_Kick in faster_, she grumbled mentally to herself. The pounding in her head took up so much of her attention that at first she didn't notice that Beast Boy was calling her.

"Rae? Raven? _Rae-_veeeen?"

Finally she turned around, a hand to her temple.

"What?" she asked flatly.

The changeling held his sponge in one hand awkwardly, scratched the back of his head with the other. "The uh… the clean-up would go a lot faster if… I don't know… if maybe you decided to pitch in and help out," he told her. "Just saying."

He looked up with a hopeful smile.

Raven smirked in spite of herself and the pain banging on her head.

"You two made the mess. _You_ clean it up."

Beast Boy pouted. "Aww, dude! That's what Robin and Starfire said!" he complained.

"Good for them," Raven muttered, turning back to the counter and picking up the bottle of aspirin again. She would bring this back to her room in case she needed another dose. "Where are they anyway? Have they already been through here?" she asked. Sometimes being around the couple and feeling their contentment and love helped to relieve her empathic tensions. Maybe it would also do something for this empathic headache.

"I think they're both off getting cleaned up," Cyborg told her.

_So much for that idea,_ Raven thought. "Great," she said aloud, sighing. She pulled her hood up and turned on her heel. "If anyone needs me, I'll be in my room. Meditating."

With no further adieu she left the room.

Cyborg and Beast Boy exchanged a look.

"Does she seem grumpier than usual today?" the shape-shifter asked.

The half-robot shrugged.

-TT-

Raven's other-universe counterpart wasn't the least bit grumpy as she descended towards the ground level in the Tower elevator. She was even humming a little. The elevator dinged and hissed open and Red Raven sauntered across to the back door. She placed her hand on the keypad. It scanned her handprint and then unlocked and parted the door for her.

The faint salty tang to the air hit her nostrils and she breathed in deeply. But not _too_ deeply, given that the dumpsters were also in the near vicinity. It was towards these that she now stepped, looking about for the resident metahuman prowler who hung around them.

"Changeling?" she called in a singsong. "I know you're here."

Something clattered off to her right and her head jerked over to see an enormous green shape crouched over a pile of litter. It was some kind of animal, but no animal that existed in normal biology, huge and hulking with matted green fur, and big paws with sharp talons currently buried in the shredded remains of a trash bag. Its face was turned towards her, its wet nose snuffling up her scent, low growls emitting from its mouth, its small feral eyes white and blank.

Such a sight might usually be cause for alarm for most people, but Red Raven only smiled and cooed, "There you are."

The creature's ears flicked up in recognition of her voice and in one quick instant it had changed form—it was a now a green but otherwise normal tiger. The tiger bounded over and pounced, bowling her over. Red Raven was winded a moment, and uncertain. She almost raised a hand cackling with scarlet energy but then she felt a moist, scratchy tongue licking her cheek and relaxed. She gently pushed the tiger's nose away and looked up into its face. It wore a happy expression, and purred deep in its throat.

"Good to see you too," she quipped. All-serious now, she brought her hands up to either side of the tiger's head, her fingers tingling with a white glow. She touched them to the tiger's skin and it gave a very human grimace, a shudder going down its whole body. Red Raven held the contact, closed her eyes and probed the animal's mind with hers for the consciousness she knew was buried within. Her powers touched the presence of a boy, a little younger than her, inside the layers of primal instinct and base creature's intelligence, and she tugged on it.

A low rumble sounded through the tiger's throat.

"Come on…" Red Raven muttered under her breath, as she pulled the boy's mind to the fore. "Surface for me… that's it…" she said, lips lifting in a smile.

The tiger's form shook again and then forcibly began to morph. The figure diminished in size until a small, pale, humanoid-looking boy sat where the tiger had once been.

The boy was barefoot and dressed in the ragged remains of what once might have been a uniform but was so mud-caked, tattered, shredded, and ripped that it was nearly unrecognizable as a garment. His green skin was scratched and covered here and there with patches of dirt, and his hair was mussed and matted like his fur had been.

He sat up and crossed his arms, scooting slightly away from her.

"I _hate_ it when you do that," he said icily, giving a shiver.

Red Raven pillowed her arms behind her head with a smirk. "How else am I supposed to have such engaging conversations with you?"

Changeling leaned back on claw-like hands. "Yeah okay, fair point, but it still creeps me out," he complained. He picked at a blade of grass by his feet. "So what did you want to talk about?"

"Your habit of pouncing on people for one."

"_You_ don't mind it," he pointed out.

"True," she admitted. "But Blackfire does. And she came whining to me about it. And you know how she gets when she _whines_." She sat up, clasped her hands in front of her chest in an imitation of the alien princess and her voice took on a girlish high pitch. "'Oh Raven! Why will you not come raiding with me? You _never _spend the time of quality with me! You always want to be alone or hang out with the _boys!_'" Red Raven dropped the falsetto pitch and put her hands back down. "Anyway she says you need to quit snarling at her and clawing trash bags out of her hands."

Changeling sniffed indignantly. "It's not like I can help what I do in animal form. I smell food, I go for it. Especially when I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry," Raven said with a dismissive, waving gesture. "I'm telling you, if you'd just come inside and join the team we'd feed you much better than what you get scrounging around out here."

"Ah, I don't like being indoors. Too cramped."

"Suit yourself." Red Raven stretched herself back out on the grass. "And the snarling?"

"It's nothing against her _personally,_" Changeling said. "She actually has a pretty nice smell. Kinda like sunflowers." His eyes glazed over, a faint smile spreading across his face as he brought the pleasant scent to mind. Shaking himself back to the present he went on, "She just keeps throwing away these weird alien foods and they taste terrible and make my stomach hurt."

Red Raven rolled her eyes. "Then don't eat them."

Changeling blinked. "Oh." He hadn't thought of that. Attempting to regain some dignity he added, "Plus she shoots starbolts at me." He didn't mention the third reason he growled at Blackfire—because her nice personal sunflower scent was nearly always covered up with the smell of the other Tyrants, mostly another _boy's_ scent, and his animal alpha-male instincts automatically recoiled at the invasion of territory and perceived competition. He didn't mention this because it was stupid. Blackfire was a very touchy-feely person; of _course_ she would get the scents of other males on her. (Red Raven was more stand-offish and so had only very vague hints of other people's scents on her, so it didn't bother him as much.)

"She shoots starbolts at you because you frighten her," the demoness muttered. "Just… make a concerted effort from now on not to pounce on her anymore. Deal?"

Changeling considered it and then nodded. "Okay, deal. I won't make any guarantees though."

Red Raven reached up and grabbed Changeling's collar, pulling him down to her level. "Glad we could come to an understanding," she purred.

She wrapped her legs around the boy's frame.

"Now…" she whispered, her arms around his neck. "What kind of news is there from the mainland, oh master of stealth?"

-TT-

Robin put his helmet down on the R-cycle seat a moment while he adjusted himself, and made sure there weren't any lingering pieces of tofu in his hair. He ran his fingers through the dark locks, feeling for bits of food. Satisfied, he picked up his helmet and shoved it over his head.

As he buckled the straps under his chin, he heard soft footfalls. He glanced over to see Starfire, looking much cleaner in a fresh uniform and smiling shyly at him.

He smiled back.

"Ready to go?" he asked.

She nodded. "Indeed."

Robin mounted the motorcycle and keyed the ignition. Starfire sat behind him, wrapping her arms comfortably around his waist. The R-cycle roared to life and rumbled beneath them. Robin kicked off and headed for the tunnel that ran under the bay, connecting the island to the mainland.

Starfire's heart thrilled as they rode, the wind whipping back her red hair. The rush of air moving past them always reminded her of flying, but on the ground. She clung to Robin, trusting him to guide them safely, just as he did when she flew with him.

They drove along the coast road that looked out over the beach and the ocean beyond. The sun shone brightly down on their heads. Starfire rested her ear on the back of Robin's shoulder and watched their surroundings breeze by.

Their first stop was the carnival by the pier. It was the off season so not everything was open, and the Midway had only a few game booths set up, but Starfire didn't mind, and dragged Robin back onto the running rides several times. Next stop was a small restaurant on the boardwalk where they had lunch, sitting outside and waving to people as they passed by.

Finally they stopped at an ice cream shop downtown for dessert. Robin parked the R-cycle and Starfire flew them up to the roof, to sit on the edge and enjoy their double-scoop cones. Robin pointed out the landmarks of the city they could see from this vantage point to her. The Ferris wheel. City Hall. And of course Titans Tower in the distance, surrounded by the glittering bay.

Starfire giggled and licked her ice cream. "Has everything been prepared for the celebration of Raven's day of birth tomorrow?" she inquired.

"Pretty much," Robin told her. He leaned back on his free hand. "I think aside from the cake, which Cyborg's baking tomorrow, we should be all set."

"Oh, it will be so much more fun this year without the threat of Slade or Trigon hanging over us," the alien princess gushed.

Robin laughed. "Can't argue there." He switched his cone to his other hand, reached for Starfire's waist and pulled her closer. She nestled herself easily into his side. Robin watched her for a moment, chewing on his lip, then asked, "So… was this an okay date?"

Her head tilted up. "It is not even over yet."

"I know, but… was it?" he pressed anxiously.

She cupped her ice cream cone in both hands, her spine straightening a fraction. "You worry too much, Robin," she admonished gently. "I do not care that much about what we do on our romantic outings." She leaned against his shoulder, giving him a love-filled expression, her beautiful green eyes shining. "Merely being with you is enough," she said.

A swell of confidence rose up in him. Somehow she always knew just what to say to raise his spirits, to encourage him. "That's good to hear," he murmured, leaning in, his eyes falling closed.

Her lips parted. Their mouths were inches apart—

_KABOOM!_

A sudden explosion rent the air and shook the buildings and the two jerked apart, startled, watching a plume of smoke drift up from somewhere nearby.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm terrible, I know.


	3. Discoveries

Robin dropped his ice cream as he and Starfire started in alarm.

"What was _that?_" Robin cried, scrambling to his feet.

Starfire stood up as well, looking across the rooftops to the source of the smoke, clutching her cone tightly and fearfully with both hands. "It originated from that direction!" she said, pointing. She paused a moment to shove the rest of her ice cream in her mouth, swallowed quickly, and grabbed Robin's hand.

She lifted into the air, Robin trailing behind her as she flew the two of them to the scene.

-TT-

Arsenal and Tempest were on their way up from the basement, having discovered the "odious smell" their Tamaranian comrade had been complaining about belonged to the rotting remains of a dead rat. Neither of them were exactly certain how long it had been there.

Upon arriving in the foyer, Arsenal carrying a cardboard box with the dead rat sealed inside, they found Red Raven coming back in from her talk with Changeling. She looked exceedingly pleased about something and even seemed to have a bit of a spring in her step.

Tempest pointed towards her indignantly. "Did she just—?"

"Probably," Arsenal replied.

The Atlantian's features wrinkled in disgust. "That's so gross. We practice out there."

Arsenal just shrugged, moving towards the elevator. "As long as she stayed near the dumpsters and didn't go near the training field."

Red Raven picked up snatches of their conversation from across the room, as she headed for the elevator herself, and smirked. The irritation her empathy could sense from Tempest amused her. She couldn't resist toying with the emotion a little, feeding it slowly and then making it ebb suddenly, three times in a row, which resulted in a satisfying spike of annoyance from her target.

"What the hell Raven?" Tempest cried indignantly, clamping his hand and hook over his head. "Cut that out!"

Her smirk widened. "Just making sure your mental defenses are working. They aren't, by the way," she told him casually. She reached the elevator just before Arsenal, and flicked the button with her telekinesis. There was an odd ache starting in her temple that she was fairly sure hadn't been there that morning but she chalked it up to the fact that she hadn't really let her powers loose recently.

She happened to glance up at the digital clock on the wall. Her good mood dropped instantly and she swore.

Whirling on her teammates, who flinched reflexively, she demanded, "Why didn't anyone come to tell me what time it was?"

The two boys looked at each other uncertainly, bewildered by her sudden mood change. Tempest spoke up hesitantly.

"Um… because we were down in the basement and you were outside with-"

"Never mind!" the demoness snapped. Waving her hand, she lifted the box from Arsenal's hands with her dark energy. "What's this?" she asked him.

"Dead rat."

Red Raven pointed at the back door with her other hand, opening it with her powers, and tossed the box neatly outside. She pulled her hood up and spoke quickly to the other two.

"Changeling told me about a secret transfer of highly classified plans and designs for new weapons between Cadmus Labs and Wayne Industries. Some sort of joint project they're cooperating on," she explained. "But the higher-ups are so paranoid about it 'falling into the wrong hands' that they won't do their transfer anywhere but a dinky little family restaurant on the South Pier, right here in our very own Jump City."

She was already moving, already on her way out.

"The transfer is set for noon and they won't be there long. We only have a ten-minute window of opportunity to strike."

She paused a moment in the doorway and looked back, extending her hand in invitation.

"Well boys? You with me?"

"I do like weapon designs," quipped Arsenal with a grin.

Tempest looked unsure, even as he joined the demoness in the doorway. "What about Red Robin and Blackfire?"

Red Raven sighed dramatically. "I guess we can't leave them out of _all_ the fun." She pulled out her communicator and flipped it open. "Red, 'Fire, get down here."

Strangely, there was no response. Not even an acknowledgement of transmission. Red Raven frowned and tried again.

"Red Robin? Blackfire? Hello?"

Still nothing.

"Are they not answering your summons?" teased Arsenal.

Without looking at him she flicked a hand in his direction and upended him with her powers. Arsenal gave a shriek as he was flipped legs up and then dumped onto his back.

"There's nothing on the line," Red Raven muttered darkly, staring at her communicator. "Not even static."

"Huh. That's odd," Tempest commented. "Did they turn their comms off?"

"I don't _know,_" Red Raven growled. "And why would they have?"

The aquakinetic shrugged. "Maybe they went out somewhere and are busy doing something that requires stealth, and had to turn them off."

From the floor Arsenal said, "Or, more likely, your communicator just isn't working." He pushed himself to his feet and grabbed the device from Red Raven. "Let _me_ see it."

He fiddled with it several long moments, tweaking the frequency, hailing the other communicators repeatedly. Red Raven fidgeted and grew increasingly more agitated, glancing up to the clock again and again.

Finally, she snatched her communicator back.

"Oh just try again when we're there!" she snapped, grabbing Arsenal's wrist and dragging him towards the door. "We're losing our window!"

As soon as they were outside and the back door was sealed up and locked behind them, Red Raven raised her hand and her scarlet energy enveloped them and teleported them away.

-TT-

Starfire set them down outside a jewelry shop with a large front window that had been smashed, through which the inky gray smoke was trailing. The glass door had already been broken, so—after exchanging a quick glance at each other—Robin stepped through and then Starfire followed.

The smoke filled her nose and stung her eyes. She coughed a couple times, trying to clear her lungs. The shop's lights had all gone out, and with the smoke everywhere it was difficult to see, but she managed to pick out a few dim forms. The smoke came from an overturned, burning table, and several small fires scattered about the place. Eerie green flames licked the wood and sputtered on the dry wallpaper, beginning to die and fizzle out. The displays were shattered, and debris littered the floor everywhere. Glass crunched under her boots with every step. Dust hung in the air.

Robin shielded his eyes, trying to peer through the smoke.

"Hello?" he called.

There was a crash from somewhere in the back. Starbolts snapped into existence around Starfire's raised fists and Robin had a pair of bird-a-rangs out and in his hands in an instant. Starfire took to the air, following the source of the sound out into a dingy employees-only hallway, and Robin clambered after her, over a pile of debris underfoot.

He was diverted however, a faint fit-of-coughing noise from a small side-office catching his attention. It belonged to a middle-aged woman cowering underneath the single desk, the poor owner of the smoking shop. Robin turned aside to tend to her while Starfire forged ahead.

The smoke in the hallway was so thick… she couldn't see an inch. She couldn't breathe. Starfire coughed furiously as she peered ahead through the smoke, her eyes watering. Her starbolts lit only a few paces in front of her, and everything else was masked with a dismal gray curtain.

But she could hear footsteps, something moving.

She managed to get some air. "Show yourself!" she demanded after the footsteps.

They paused. There was a shuffling noise, the low murmur of voices. Two people whispering to each other—she couldn't make out the words.

Suddenly she heard the whizzing of several projectiles flying towards her. She yelped, dodging out of the way. She heard the metallic thunking of the projectiles embedding in the walls and floor. Squinting her eyes and peering intently through the smoke, she spotted the darker gray silhouette of a person, and unleashed a volley of starbolts.

The green blasts cut through the smoke but hit nothing, the faint figure of her target twisting and ducking to avoid each shot. And then, abruptly, her own starbolts were being sent back at her.

Starfire reeled back in the air, crossing her arms in front of her head to protect herself as the bolts singed the space around her. She felt a momentary confusion, for the number of starbolts being shot back at her seemed greater than the number she'd sent out, but she had no time to think about it, for something else flew out from the smoke at her.

It exploded, and the already-weakened ceiling above her crumbled and collapsed, large chunks of plaster and wood falling to the floor. The force of the blast knocked Starfire out of the air, and she scrambled backwards on her heels out from under the falling debris, trying desperately to avoid being crushed.

A new cloud of dust and soot rose up. Starfire's lungs burned; she dissolved into a fresh round of coughing as the dust settled and the smoke drifted about. Scrambling to her feet, she looked over the top of the new pile of debris, blinking furiously to clear her eyes and get a glimpse of her adversaries.

She saw two vague human figures, one male, one female. Her eyes registered red and black, and the glint of silver. The boy-figure seemed to turn towards her.

"Can't stay cutie, sorry. Catch you next time!" he called, his tone light, his voice at once recognizable and startlingly familiar.

Starfire stumbled backwards in surprise. Recovering, she floated up and shoved aside a few bits of debris for a better look.

There was no longer anyone there.

The Tamaranian princess hovered quietly in the air, bewildered.

-TT-

"The police and the fire department will be here soon," Robin told the store clerk as he clicked off his communicator, having just radioed in to Cyborg at the Tower to let him know the situation.

"Thank you," she croaked, and coughed lightly into her fist.

Robin came over to where she sat on the curb, and knelt down by her. "How are you feeling?" he asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.

The clerk managed a faint grin. "Much better, son."

"Can you tell me anything about what happened?"

"Not much I'm afraid," she said, shaking her head. "I was in the back taking inventory and then all of a sudden there was a bright green light and everything just… exploded." She brushed off a bit of ash on her overalls. "There were two of them. They passed the office making their escape. I couldn't see 'em real well," she confessed.

"That's all right," Robin reassured her. He stood to his feet again. "Do you mind if Starfire and I take a look through the damage, to see what they stole?"

"Sure sure," she said, waving him off.

"Anything else we can do to help?" Robin offered.

"Insurance'll cover everything, hon. Don't you worry about it."

Robin nodded, turned, and walked back into the store. The bright afternoon sunlight dimmed immediately as he stepped across the threshold into the gloom of the vandalized shop. The glass splintered beneath his soles as he crossed over to the display cases. The Boy Wonder studied them intently, puzzling out the details in his mind.

Though the displays had been smashed at random, the jewelry itself had been meticulously picked through. Everything with rubies, diamonds, and emeralds had been taken, the rest left untouched. A couple of the displays were even completely intact, showing nothing untoward except soot marks on the unbroken glass.

Robin traced a finger through one of the marks, then brought his hand up to look at the soot more closely. He frowned, rubbing the grime off his gloves, and took a step back, mentally tracing the pattern of destruction. The window had been blown out first. Then something had blown up inside the store, starting the fires and shorting all the lights. The scorch marks on the walls and floor and displays all trailed to a single origin in the center of the room. It reminded him of the aftermath of Starfire's starbolt bomb that morning, only three times more destructive.

While he was staring at the floor, thinking, he heard footsteps wandering towards him and looked up to see Starfire returning from the restricted hallway.

"Hey," he greeted, straightening, touching her arm as soon as she was close enough. "Anything?" he asked.

She shook her head. She seemed unusually distracted, her gaze far off as she told him, "The perpetrators and I exchanged fire briefly before they escaped. I was not able to follow."

"Did you get a look at them, at least?" Robin pressed her.

She came to herself, focusing on the present again, and nodded. "Not clearly. There was a boy and a girl. The boy was closest to me, and dressed in mostly red and black."

"Red X?"

"I do not think so." She frowned. "That is," she amended, "he is admittedly very similar, but I do not believe they are the same person."

Robin's brows scrunched behind his mask. He ran through a mental checklist of villains that could match Starfire's partial description. "Whoever he is, he and his companion have a taste for expensive semi-precious gemstones," he said, turning back towards the displays and leaning over a broken one. "But they left some of the most expensive pieces behind. Why?" he wondered aloud. "A normal smash-and-grab takes everything pretty much indiscriminately, or tries to target the most valuable stuff. These thieves only took certain pieces. This doesn't make any sense."

Behind him, Starfire shifted uncomfortably on her feet.

"There is… one more thing…" she said, hesitating. "The boy spoke to me before he left."

"Yeah?"

Starfire bit her lip, and clasped her hands in front of her. Raising her eyes, she called, "Robin?"

Robin had been paying only half-attention, rummaging through the jewelry in the display cases, but at the unsettled note in Starfire's call he straightened up at once, facing her in concern.

"What is it?" he asked anxiously.

She paused a moment, then took a deep breath. "He had your voice."

"My voice?" Robin repeated, confused, his eyes widening a little. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, when he spoke… his voice sounded identical to yours. I almost believed for a moment that you had somehow transported in front of me."

Robin took this news in soberly, his forehead wrinkling with deep unease and suspicion. He crossed his arms, and leaned against a display, countenance troubled.

"Well…" he said finally, with a bit of grim humor. "_That_ doesn't sound good."

-TT-

Beast Boy rapped insistently on the door to Raven's room. He hadn't seen her since that morning and he was starting to get a little worried. (Besides, he hadn't figured out where he wanted to take her for lunch the next day, and he needed her valuable input.)

"Raven! Hey Raven!" he called through the door.

Three loud stomps sounded and then the door was shoved open so fast it made Beast Boy stumble back. Raven poked her head out the opening with a surly, witheringly unpleasant glare.

"What?" she snapped. Then she bit her lip and grimaced, closing her eyes. "I'm sorry," she muttered softly, much gentler. "I shouldn't take it out on you. It isn't your fault."

"You sure?" Beast Boy squeaked, lowering his arms, which he'd flung up to protect himself with from Raven's death glare.

The corner of her mouth twitched upwards in a weak half-smile. "Pretty sure," she told him. "Unless you've done something recently I should know about."

"You mean besides the giant food fight?" he joked. More seriously, he took a step closer to her, concern taking over his features. "Are you okay Raven? You seem a little, well… _grouchy_ today," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "I mean-" he added quickly. "Not that that's particularly _unusual_ for you or anything just, um…"

He trailed off, scratching his hair cluelessly.

"I forgot what point I was trying to make," he confessed.

"Well I appreciate your concern anyway," the empath said dryly. Raven slid the door open the rest of the way, and beckoned him to come in. "I'm all right," she sighed, crossing over to her bed. "I just have a _really_ nasty headache right now."

"That sucks," Beast Boy sympathized, stepping into the room. "Did you take any—"

"Yes," Raven interrupted. "Twice." She sighed and sat down heavily on the foot of her bed, putting a weary hand to her forehead. "It's not going away." Under her breath she added, "Feels like microphone feedback inside my brain."

Beast Boy hopped lightly onto the bed behind her and sat up on his knees. He placed his hands on either side of her head, and began to rub her temples, massaging gently with small, circular motions.

"Mmmm…" Raven hummed, leaning into the affection. Beast Boy's helpful gesture was actually relieving some of the tension and pressure. "That feels nice."

The shape-shifter grinned. "See? I'm useful for some things," he teased cheekily.

"Don't let it go to your head," Raven quipped back.

-TT-

A scratchy, radio-tuning sound let Cyborg know the communication relays were glitching again. The half-robot let out an aggravated groan as he rolled his chair back over to one of the computer consoles and tapped away at the keyboard, tweaking the settings until the two blinking yellow icons representing Starfire and Robin's positions came back into focus, reappearing on the digital map of the city.

Cyborg grumbled to himself. That had been the third time within the past half-hour the comlink systems had done that. He was starting to suspect a hardware problem.

He accessed the Tower's main operating system, isolated the communication programs, and started running a diagnostic. A window on the computer screen dissolved into a series of diagrams as the diagnostic program slowly checked through the bits and pieces of information, looking for anything abnormal in the system's function.

Cyborg leaned back in his chair and crossed one leg over the other. He felt a little better now.

On the mousepad by his elbow, his communicator started beeping. Cyborg picked it up and flipped it open.

"Cyborg." It was Robin again. "Starfire and I are going to keep looking for the jewel thieves. We're at Hillcrest and Rorchester right now, heading for the marina."

"That's good," Cyborg told him, leaning forward in his seat to peer at a flashing red dot that had just appeared on the map. "Because I just got a security alert about a break-in at another store in your vicinity."

"Understood," Robin acknowledged. "We're on our way there now."

"Y'all need any back-up?" asked Cyborg.

"We can handle this one," Robin assured him. "But call us if something bigger comes up."

"Will do," Cyborg promised.

"Robin out."

Cyborg set aside his communicator, just in time to see the map flicker again. He groaned.

"Oh come _on,"_ he complained, tapping out the re-calibration for a fourth time. "What's wrong with you?"

The speakers gave a whine of static and white noise in protest, and the screen glitched and blurred and filled with snow a couple times. Cyborg growled and thumped the side of the computer with his hand. The picture jolted and then cleared up, and the static cut out.

The half-robot sat back in his seat with a satisfied grunt. Lousy piece of—

Something caught his attention on one of the other displays. Cyborg wheeled himself over. The Tower's long-range scanners were picking up something. The scanners were designed to monitor toxicity levels in the air, seismic activity, radiation, sea level, anything unusual or abnormal enough to indicate an impending natural or man-made disaster. (The Titans frequently helped the emergency teams out with such things.) And now they were showing trace amounts of some kind of excess energy. Cyborg had to double-check the readings to be sure the equipment wasn't just calibrated wrong. He held up his arm and cross-referenced the numbers against the readouts in his personal computer.

No… no he wasn't imagining things... there was definitely _something_ getting picked up.

Cyborg frowned at his arm, scrolling down the display with a finger and then looking back up at the Tower computer.

"That's weird," he muttered to himself.

-TT-

Cyber-Vile had noticed the strange energy read-outs also; in fact, it was stronger on his end. But he wasn't too worried about it. He was, in fact, quite preoccupied with his current task of stripping the Tyrants' Tower of their current (and in his evaluation infinitely inferior) security system. He sat calmly in front of the computer, wires and cables from his back hooked up to outlets in the panels, uploading his programs.

His bio-sensors picked up on three life-forms approaching. He had already deduced their identity before the door slammed open.

An _extremely_ pissed Red Raven stalked into the room, followed hesitantly by the cowering Tempest and Arsenal, who gave their female companion a generous and wide berth.

To say the demoness was in a bad mood would be an understatement; she was near furious and the very air around her seemed to crackle with red lightning. Not only had the Tyrants missed their window, and failed to steal the designs, but they had been beset by the surprisingly tough security teams from both Cadmus and Wayne Labs there to guard the transfer. As if _that_ hadn't been enough bad luck, heroes from HIVE Academy had shown up as well. And all throughout the disastrous events they had tried, over and _over_ again, to raise Red Robin and Blackfire to absolutely no avail. They couldn't get a single response or even a trace from the tracking devices. The two had just bailed on them, it seemed, and she didn't know _where_ they were.

And the ache in her temple had worsened; it was now a full-blown stabbing feeling in that frustrating spot right behind her eyes.

So she wasn't particularly happy to see Cyber-Vile sitting casually at their computers.

"_What are you doing here?"_ she screeched.

Cyber-Vile didn't even blink or turn around. "I am installing the new security system that you commissioned from me," he explained in an even monotone. "I thought it prudent to complete the task as expediently as possible. Your current system is woefully inadequate. Observation: It would be extremely easy for an enemy to penetrate the defenses." He finally slid his eyes to look back over his shoulder at her. His emotionless voice took on the barest hint of smugness. "As is evidenced by the simplicity of my own break-in to enter the Tower."

Red Raven shook with rage, barely containing herself. Her hands squeezed into tight fists. Her control teetered on the edge. She let out a feral snarl, whirled about and raised her hand at the chairs and table in the corner, and let off a blast of dark matter.

The scarlet energy exploded beneath the furniture, throwing them into the air, and making Arsenal and Tempest flinch. Red Raven didn't bother to watch where the chairs and table landed, turning back around and letting out a breath. She felt her demonic side cooling off, for now, her control returning. She was still very irritated though.

"Locate their communicators!" she snapped. "Find out where the hell they are so I can yell at them for ditching us."

"On it," said Arsenal, scurrying to obey. He rushed to one of the other computer consoles and brought up the GPS tracking. Tempest, meanwhile, found a place to sit, and tried his best to be unobtrusive. He'd been on the receiving end of Red Raven's demonic freak-outs a few times before. And didn't particularly care to relieve the experience.

For a few moments, Arsenal tapped away at the keyboard. Then he frowned and sat back. "Okay, now I'm worried," he said. "I still can't get a signal from either of their communicators. Even if they were off I should still be able to find their locators, but I've got _nothing_."

"Deactivated?" Red Raven asked.

"Possibly."

Red Raven rubbed a hand down her face, aggravated. "I'll get my mirror," she muttered, giving a weary groan. Her eyes flicked over to where Cyber-Vile was sitting, ignoring them and focusing on his task. "I don't suppose _you've_ seen them," she quipped.

Cyber-Vile didn't look up, but replied anyway. "When last I encountered Red Robin—at eight hours, fourteen minutes, and twenty-three point seven seconds in the lab this morning—he was seeking to utilize a dimensional portal ripper, in conjunction with your mirror, in order to enter a universe in which your moral alignments were flipped. Deduction: That is probably where he is now."

It became eerily quiet in the room.

"What?" Red Raven said, in the flattest, most deadly serious tone of voice she had.

"The reason you are unable to contact them is most likely because they are out of range in another reality," Cyber-Vile repeated, turning slightly in his seat to face the others.

Arsenal rose from his seat to shake a finger at the half-robot. "Cy, if you're lying to us I _swear_—"

"Though my programming allows for me to speak falsehoods," the cyborg interrupted, "I am not doing so now." He crossed his arms, sending a look towards Red Raven. "Challenge: Go and see for yourself, if you doubt me."

Red Raven stood glaring for a second, then silently turned on her heel and stalked out of the room.

The hallways passed by her in a blur as she turned left, right, left again. The air around her was charging again. Her demon side was barely at bay. Cyber-Vile was in for a world of trouble if he was lying… though not as much trouble as Red Robin would be in for if the cyborg was telling the truth and both he, Blackfire, and her mirror were all—

She reached her room and the door was flung aside, off its hinges, by a flick of mental concentration. She stepped in, her eyes immediately locking on her vanity and dropping to the spot where her mirror usually lay deceptively innocent yet perilously booby-trapped and was now—

Gone.

Her control left her in an instant. Her eyes glowed red. And then a second pair of similar eyes opened higher up on her forehead.

The room dimmed.

-TT-

Back in OPS, Tempest and Arsenal had been pacing, waiting for Red Raven to come back, when they heard the blast, felt a violent shudder rumble through the whole Tower, rattling the windows and shaking the lights.

They looked at each other with matching, wide-eyed expressions of horror.

"_Ohhhhh _crap," Arsenal voiced, succinctly summarizing both their feelings on what was happening downstairs.

"RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" Tempest yelled, already bolting for the door and the quickest way out of the Tower he could find.

Cyber-Vile glanced up from his work, logic processors whirring. Obviously the unusual phenomenon was a frequent occurrence, one which the two Tyrants had been previously witness to, and had a clear and rational fear of. His sensors analyzed the event occurring down below, noting from afar the demoness's agitated blood pressure, short breathing, and high levels of anger, and the off-the-chart energy readings surrounding her.

Observing also the rising amount of danger present, the half-robot calmly unplugged himself from the console, stood up, and sought for the most expedient way to safety.

-TT-

The maelstrom of red swirled around her. Flailing tentacles of darkness from under her cloak lashed about, tearing through walls, pipes, electrical wires, everything. She moved down the hallway, her unbridled powers destroying whatever they touched.

She saw nothing, felt nothing except her raw, roiling, burning _rage_. Her demon self was fully loosed now, and there would be no calming down from this until her emotions were spent. She just floated through the Tower and took relish in every object that broke under her will.

Only a single thought ran through her mind:

_I'm going to _ _ **kill** _ _ him._


	4. Traces

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still around readers? Good, because I have a brand new shiny chapter for you, with more action, more of the mystery revealed, and our heroes and villains one step closer to colliding. Enjoy!

"So, your robotic eye can see through solid metals huh?

"Correct."

Arsenal grinned and leaned forward a bit. "Can it see through clothing too?" he asked, a lecherous glint in his eyes. "That might come in handy."

A growl came from a mangy green hound peeking over the edge of the dumpster.

"Oh, take a chill pill!" Arsenal snapped in annoyance. "We're not even anywhere _near_ you."

Tempest sighed and grabbed up a small pouch by his feet, something he'd rescued before evacuating the Tower. He slid the zipper open and pulled out a substantial chunk of red steak.

The hound's head perked up, nostrils twitching excitedly at the smell.

"Here." Tempest tossed the piece down with a smile.

The hound bounced down off the dumpster happily and descended upon the treat. The dog slid it towards himself between his paws, and his form shifted into that of Changeling's. The boy's teeth sunk eagerly into the meat.

"Thanks dude," he muttered around a mouthful.

"Not a problem," Tempest told him. "I always have extra after feeding Pete."

"Inquiry: Who is 'Pete'?" Cyber-Vile piped up, genuinely confused.

Changeling answered for both of them. "The kraken that lives in the Jump City Bay." Through his chewing he explained, "I know him. He doesn't like to talk much."

"Not to you anyway," Tempest corrected.

The door to the Tower behind them suddenly banged opened to reveal Red Raven. Both Tempest and Arsenal flinched and took a step back. Cyber-Vile had no reaction, his sensors having noticed her coming. Only Changeling seemed happy to see her, letting out a gleeful mewl as he shifted into a cat, bounded to her side, and began rubbing himself against her legs, purring.

Fortunately for all of them, Red Raven's demonic rage had calmed down long ago and she was back to normal, albeit still scowling and very, _very_ angry. Her cold glower softened slightly at Changeling's affection, and she bent down and spared the cat a brief stroke before straightening and marching up to Cyber-Vile resolutely, her eyes narrow and determined.

"Care to take another commission, Cy?"

She jabbed a finger into his chest.

"I need a power booster."

-TT-

"Twenty-seven, twenty-eight…" Red Robin counted, sorting their rapidly-growing pile of stolen jewelry.

Blackfire sat languidly on the floor across from him, giggling and watching him.

They had commandeered a motel room for themselves in one of Jump City's older districts. After blowing open the doors and scaring the owner half to death, Red Robin had tossed down a diamond necklace on the front desk and casually demanded a room. The owner had asked no questions after that, just pointed them in the direction of his least grubby room and tossed them the keys. The two of them had already made themselves quite at home in their temporary hideout and base of operations, which they had decided to stash their plunder in when it became too much to carry. (It also made for a safe place to stick the portal ripper and Red Raven's mirror, now that they weren't using them.)

"Thirty-two emerald necklaces," Red Robin concluded, sitting up. "Twenty-three ruby, ten sapphire, an even dozen diamond rings, fifteen gold bracelets, and nineteen pairs of earrings of various precious gemstones…" He picked up one of the necklaces—a delicate twisted gold chain laden with huge deep green emeralds that almost looked too heavy for it—and dangled it in his fingers. "Not a bad haul, if I do say so myself," he said, flashing her a grin.

"Indeed," Blackfire said, only paying half-attention, her eyes fixated greedily on the emerald necklace in Red Robin's hand. Her expression burned with a hungry look.

Noticing, Red Robin closed his hand around the necklace and held it away. "Ah," he chided, wagging a finger at her. "This one's for Raven."

Blackfire deflated immediately with a sour pout, and crossed her arms resentfully. "But she has so many gems already!" she protested.

"One more can't hurt," Red Robin said, shrugging. "Besides, I have to give her _something_ for her birthday."

"Then pick one of the other pieces!" Blackfire snapped. A little softer, attempting to actually control herself, she added sweetly, "Perhaps this bracelet with the rubies? Red Raven likes the rubies yes?"

"Arsenal already got her rubies," Red Robin pointed out. "Besides, red and green go pretty well together don't they?"

Blackfire abandoned any pretense of decorum. "But I _want_ that one!" she said in a pronounced nasal whine, smacking her fist against her thigh pointedly.

"All right, _fine!_" Red Robin relented in exasperation, passing over the emerald necklace at once. "_Jeez_, you are so _pushy_."

Blackfire snatched it out of his hand in delight and immediately set about trying it on. She giggled at Red Robin's disgruntled look. "Oh do not be like that. You know that I have a fondness for these green Earth gems of yours. Besides," she added, looking at her fingernails impassively, "emeralds clash horribly with pink hair. I thought your sense of the color balance was much better than that."

Red Robin ignored the obvious dig at him. "So much drama over a freaking necklace…" he muttered under his breath.

"How is it?" Blackfire asked, finishing with the clasp and twisting her body to better face him.

"Fine."

"You did not even look!"

He glanced up for about two seconds. "Looks great on you." He tugged agitatedly at his hair as he sat up and rested his elbows on his knees. "Can we focus on the fact that now I don't have anything to give Red Raven?" he complained.

His female companion fiddled idly with her necklace. "Truthfully, I would be more concerned with being alive to _see_ her day of birth," she drawled. "Given that you and I have stolen her mirror and done the 'taking off' without the others."

Red Robin waved a hand nonchalantly. "Aw, stop worrying. We'll be back before she even notices it's gone," he assured her. "Still doesn't solve my first problem though."

Blackfire sighed, rolling her eyes, and without hesitation picked out a ring and a bracelet from the pile and held them out to him. "You could give her these perhaps? They match well enough to complete a nice set with Arsenal's gift."

"That's actually not a bad idea," he admitted. Grinning, he leaned over for a quick kiss, which turned into a slightly longer one as Blackfire gleefully pressed her lips into his. They were breathless when they finally pulled back. "What would I do without you babe?" he asked.

She only laughed and shifted herself over to his side, so she could lean her head on his shoulder. Red Robin snaked his arm around her waist and pulled her close.

"So Princess…" he murmured into her ear huskily. "We've robbed and vandalized a dozen jewelry shops. Now what d'you want to do?"

"Mmm…" she considered, looking up at him with a mischievous glint in her eyes. "I can think of a few things…" She reached to wrap her arms around his neck and swiveled about, clearly leaning in for another kiss.

Red Robin put his hands on her shoulders to restrain her though, and gently but forcefully pushed her away.

"Maybe later Blackfire," he said, brushing her off. He reached past her into the pile of jewelry and started playing idly with some of the pieces. "We haven't hit any museums or tech labs yet, you want to do that?"

Blackfire's expression stung with the hurt of rejection. "You do not desire me?" she whimpered.

"What?" Red Robin looked up in surprise to find his female teammate on the verge of tears, and he panicked. "N-no, it's not like that, of course I do, just not right now," he jumped to reassure her, taking her hands.

"But you told me once I could 'take you to bed any time' and you would not mind it! You were lying to me?"

"What? No!" Red Robin denied adamantly. "It was just—that—I mean—" he stuttered. Of all possible times to get tongue-tied. Feeling his face rapidly flushing he stumbled out, "It was just an expression! You weren't supposed-I didn't know you'd take it literally!"

"So it is _not_ true?"

"It's—" Flustered, Red Robin let go of her hands and gestured agitatedly. "Look, it's not important. It wasn't serious. It was just Earth slang okay? Playful banter. The kind you have trouble grasping."

Blackfire scowled at that, and turned from him with a loud, "Hmph!" She crossed her arms and refused to look at him. "You are just making excuses now."

Desperately trying to reign in control of the conversation, Red Robin changed the subject. "Whatever," he said. "So, museum or tech lab, which one?"

"I would prefer to rob a bank. That is always enjoyable."

"Too easy," he dismissed immediately.

That just offended Blackfire more. "Oh, so now you neither wish to sleep with me _or_ accept my suggestions!" she spat angrily. She rose to her feet in a huff, clenching her fists at her sides as she yelled at him. "Why did you even invite me upon this venture if you were going to spend all the time doing the ignoring of me?" she asked, her voice dripping with sarcastic bitterness.

"I'm not—!" Red Robin tried to protest, but she had already turned on her heel and was now stalking towards the door. Red Robin gaped incredulously as she heavily shoved aside one of the ratty cushioned chairs in her path and stormed out, slamming the door open against the hallway wall with a loud bang on her way.

For a moment all he could do was blink in shock. Then his eyes narrowed and he sprang to his feet.

"Come back here!" he snarled, leaping after her.

He caught up with her in the hallway and grabbed for her, seizing her wrist harshly. Without hesitation she whirled around and struck him squarely in the temple with her arm. Stars exploded in his vision and he blundered into the wall as he was knocked back. Blackfire didn't bother to turn around, just continued on her stiff, determined course down the hall.

Red Robin squeezed his eyes closed, grimacing, as slow stabbing pain from the blow pulsed through his head.

_Ow ow ow, that hurt like hell… forgot she could hit that hard, _he thought, holding the side of his head.

Clearly, he needed a more genteel approach to the situation.

When he had recovered enough to see straight again, he took off after Blackfire, following her down the stairs, calling her name, though she pretended not to hear. They emerged into the lobby. The owner, who had been dangling his diamond necklace payment in the light of the nearby desk lamp (making it sparkle and throw reflections off his face), meeped and threw himself underneath his desk at once. Neither Tyrant paid him any heed, Blackfire proceeding immediately out the back door into the alley and Red Robin running after her.

"Blackfire!" he pleaded. "Come on. Blackfire!"

She finally halted and abruptly turned to face him. _"What?"_ she demanded, a scowl dominating her face.

The sight of the fresh, rapidly purpling bruise next to his eye sapped all her anger in an instant and she gasped and rushed forward in a display of startling worry that could have put one of Red Raven's mood swings to shame.

"Robin!" she cried, with her hands covering her mouth. "Oh X'hal! I did not mean to… I am so sorry!" she said, reaching to grab his chin and turn his face towards her. She poked at the bruise.

"Ah-tch-tch—!" he chided, swatting her fingers away. "Don't _touch_ me! You'll make it worse!" he complained.

She stepped back, her eyes welling up with frustrated tears, her fists clenched at her sides again. "You—" she sputtered. "—you—"

Before she could finish with what was obviously going to be something very rude in Tamaranian, Red Robin reached out for her hands and grasped them tightly in his own.

"I'm sorry. Okay?" he said quickly. "You're right, and I do want to sleep with you. It's just—I mean—Sometimes you want these things to be _special_ y'know? That's all I meant by it—brushing you off earlier," he stammered out. He looked up into her eyes. "I just thought it would be better _after_ we're finished making epic hell out of this version of Jump City. More exciting."

Blackfire made a sound that was halfway between a giggle and a sob. "I see," she said in relief. "Yes. Yes, you are right," she told him. "That _is_ a fitting… 'climax' to our exploits."

Red Robin raised an eyebrow. "Now who exactly has been teaching you innuendo like that, _Princess?_" he teased, nuzzling his nose into her ear.

"You would be surprised what I pick up from the late-night cable specials," she replied coyly. Dropping her eyes in shame she added, "Forgive me for hitting you. I apologize."

"Yeah, I'm sorry for our fight too. It was stupid," he agreed, mumbling it into her hair. He pulled back suddenly. "But let me make it up to you."

She cocked her head to the side in interest.

He grinned. "Let's pay a visit to the local jail."

Blackfire bounced gleefully on her toes, clapping her hands excitedly.

-TT-

The door split apart for Beast Boy and Raven as they walked into OPS together. Beast Boy let go of the empath's hand and made a beeline for the kitchen, where he set about getting the tea kettle and filling it with water.

Raven, meanwhile, wandered over to look over Cyborg's shoulder. The computer screen he was bent over was filled with diagrams and charts, and he was studying them intently.

"Something wrong?" she asked.

Not looking up as he peered at the readings, he replied, "The Tower's long-range sensors have been picking up some weird energy readings."

"Huh." Raven took a look at the screens herself, crossing her arms and leaning over to better see. "Do you know what's causing it?"

"No. All I know is it's coming from inside the city." Cyborg rolled his chair out a bit from the desk. "Whatever it is, it's also causing some interference in our communications network. Nothing too serious, just really annoying."

From the kitchen, Beast Boy called, "Hey Raven, which flavor d'you want?" as he was getting down a cup.

"Mint," she told him. "And get me another aspirin while you're at it."

"Uh…" he said hesitantly. "I think you're over the recommended dosage already."

Raven groaned miserably, putting her face in her hands.

Cyborg turned in his seat. "You sick Rae?"

"I don't know. I've had a headache all morning," she explained through her fingers.

Her half-human friend stood up, raising his arm to perform an analysis on her. "What kind of headache?" he asked her.

Raven raised her face from her hands and attempted to describe her symptoms. "The usual kind?" she finally offered helplessly. As Cyborg started analyzing, Raven began to feel self-conscious, and looked off to the side uncomfortably. "It's nothing too serious, really. Don't worry about it, Cyborg," she said, trying to brush it off.

"Nonsense," Cyborg said as he circled her. "If you're coming down with something I think we should know, before your birthday turns into a complete fever fest." A few moments more and his arm beeped with the results. "My scan says you're normal," he said, lowering his arm. "When did you first start having symptoms?"

Raven pursed her lips, trying to remember. "About… 9:20-ish I think."

Cyborg jolted slightly at that. "You sure?" he pressed.

"Pretty sure."

The half-robot swiveled back to his computer chair and began tapping rapidly at the keyboard.

Beast Boy glanced over as he poured a stream of hot water into the teacup. "You think that weird energy has something to do with Raven's headache?" he asked, setting the kettle down.

Cyborg looked up briefly. "You beat me to it."

The changeling frowned as he picked up the cup and brought it around the counter with him. "So then how come we're both okay?" he questioned, handing the cup to Raven.

The half-robot's brows crunched in thought. "Dunno," he admitted. "Maybe Raven's just more sensitive to it." Cyborg turned back to the computer and resumed typing.

_Unlikely_, Raven thought, pressing her lips together as she cradled her tea. Her powers didn't work that way. They were sensitive to emotions, minds, and presences. Not energy. Unless their mysterious energy readings were somehow magical in nature, Raven shouldn't be able to feel them at all, much less get a headache from them. And if they _were_ magical in nature she doubted the Tower's sensors were equipped to pick them up. She didn't speak any of this aloud however, sipping her tea calmly. The mint relaxant loosened up her senses, eased the tension a little bit. Raven relished the cool feeling it gave her, and drained the cup quickly.

Cyborg stopped typing, and straightened up. He'd found what he'd been looking for. "I was right," he announced, pulling up a graph on the main window screen. "Timeline shows the initial spike of unidentified energy occurring at 9:23 this morning."

Right when she'd been up on the roof. Despite how things usually operated with her powers, Raven had to concede that that was too big a coincidence to be normal. "And my powers have been reacting to it ever since," she concluded. She sent a wry smile in Beast Boy's direction. "Guess now we know why all those painkillers haven't been working," she quipped.

Beast Boy's eyes were fixed on the screen worriedly. "We'd better check it out," he said. "I don't like the idea of weird mysterious energy floating around, especially if it's hurting Raven."

"Agreed," Raven nodded. "Can you pinpoint the origin?"

Cyborg bent over the keyboard a moment. A map flickered up onto the window screen, with tiny yellow lines scanning over it. The lines intersected and formed a smaller box that promptly enlarged. The computer chimed.

_Beep! Beep!_

"Got it," Cyborg said, rolling away from the desk. "Two blocks south of Fifth Street."

Raven held her empty cup out to Beast Boy, who morphed into a bird, took the handle in his claws, and swiftly deposited it in the kitchen sink.

"Let's go," she said.

-TT-

Moments later, the three of them were approaching the intersection. Cyborg walked at the front, scanning ahead with his arm. Beast Boy and Raven trailed close behind him.

Raven felt a pressure mounting in her head the closer they got. She could practically _feel_ the charge in the air. She couldn't be sure, but something about the traces of energy felt oddly… familiar.

"Ow!" she exclaimed suddenly, clapping a hand to her head as sharp sting pierced through her temple.

Beast Boy stepped towards her in concern. "Raven?"

She looked towards him grimly. "We're definitely getting closer," she said.

As they neared the source, Cyborg glanced up from his readings to look forward, and his steps slowed.

"Woah."

Beast Boy peered around him to see what was up, and his eyes widened.

The air was… shimmering. It looked like a mirage or a trick of the light at first glance, but the longer you stared, the more you noticed the odd distortions, the funny way the buildings seemed to waver.

A single uniformed cop stood in front of the bizarre sight, directing what little traffic there was off to side streets to avoid the strange phenomenon. And a small cluster of emergency workers were milling about, cleaning up the lingering traces of what looked like some sort of car accident.

The trio glanced at each other in befuddlement. Then they approached the officer, picking their way, careful not get to get underfoot of the clean-up crew.

"What happened here?" Cyborg asked once they were close enough.

"Explosion o' some kind. Car went up in flames and several more crashed inna each other," the man explained. He nodded towards the shimmering air. "And we have no idea what _that_ is so we're steerin' people clear o' it. Better safe than sorry yanno?"

"Good thinking," Beast Boy agreed.

Cyborg pointed back up the street. "You might want to close off this whole street, Officer, at least from there down to Sixth," he told the man, sweeping his arm forward. "I don't like the readings I'm getting off that thing."

"Will do, Titans."

The Titans walked up towards the disturbance while behind them, the cop radioed in to the station.

Raven couldn't help but be fascinated by the wavering distortion. It was so subtle, just a flicker of a ripple across the space between the buildings on either side, but so unmistakably _there_. It looked almost like a pool of water, or a soft carpet she could just fall into. Mesmerized, she raised her hand and reached out to touch it.

"I wouldn't do that, Raven," Cyborg cautioned, eyes fixed on his arm readouts. "You might not get that hand back."

The empath dropped her arm at once, and then crossed both of them together under her cloak to resist the temptation. Reluctantly, she pulled her eyes away from the distortion. This close to the energy source, her headache had worsened tenfold, though the pain was oddly much duller, and came in slow pulses and throbs instead of the sharp stings she had been used to. She shuffled behind Cyborg, and pleasantly found that his bulk shielded her somewhat and her headache diminished. Breathing in and out calmly, she recited her mantra in her head.

Cyborg looked up from his arm and stared at the shimmering air with a frown. The interference was wrecking havoc on his instruments. His electronic eye seemed to be seeing two things at once; the feed flickered and he couldn't make sense of it. He could see the pattern of the distortion clearly, and the city street beyond it, but he could also see faint white radiating forms that looked like furniture—a bed and a vanity and chairs. His human eye saw no such apparition.

"I'm picking up some _weird_ things with my electronic eye, y'all," he told them.

Beast Boy, meanwhile, was busy sniffing around the area in green bloodhound form. His nostrils had perked up when they'd first approached the distortion. He'd morphed immediately, following an interesting scent. Sunflowers. Exotic spice. And just the barest hint of hair gel. A strangely recognizable mixture. It led off into an alleyway, but Beast Boy didn't track it very far that way. Instead he turned around and began trailing it the other direction, to see where it'd come from.

The hound snuffled up all the way to Cyborg's feet, and the edge of the disruption. Beast Boy lifted his head and blinked in confusion. He bounded over to the sidewalk, edging around to avoid the rippling space, and tried to pick up the trail on the other side. After a moment of circling he stopped, and bounded back around and resumed human form, scratching his head and staring at the ground, right where the line of distorted air met it.

"Find something?" asked Raven.

"Two trails come right up to… whatever this is," he said. "And then they just… disappear."

Cyborg did a double-take at that. "You mean somebody went_ in_ that?" he exclaimed.

"Somebody came out," Beast Boy corrected. "The scent is faintest here."

"So…" Raven drawled. "Think we should tell Robin that beings from another dimension are wandering around Jump City?"

Cyborg raised a hand to reply, but was interrupted by a sudden insistent beeping from his communicator. Raven and Beast Boy's rang at the same moment, and all three of them pulled out their comms and flipped them open to see the red alert flashing across their screens.

The accompanying text read:

**Urgent. Break-in at Jump City State Penitentiary. Prisoners loose.**

"Looks like we've got bigger things to worry about," Cyborg said grimly.

-TT-

Robin swept a pile of broken glass to the side with his foot, and sighed in aggravation. Sixth shop they'd found hit, still no sign of their jewelry thieves. His frustration was mounting. And what Starfire had told him about someone else having his voice troubled him all the more.

Rubbing the back of his head, he looked over at Starfire, and managed a faint smile.

"I'm sorry our date ended like this," he told her.

"Oh," she said, shaking her head and beaming at him. "It is all right. We are Titans. This sort of thing is to be expected."

"I just—" Robin kicked a piece of rubble away. "I can't figure out what our jewel thieves are up to. It's like they're on some kind of Bonnie and Clyde spree. Six places in the same day? That's overkill even for our villains."

"Excepting perhaps the Billy Numerous," Starfire reminded him.

"Right," he agreed. "And I don't—"

His communicator beeped, ending their conversation. Starfire felt hers buzzing in the pocket of her skirt as well, but didn't get it out. Robin flipped up the screen to reveal the alert, replaced a moment later by Cyborg's face.

"Star! Robin! Jailbreak!" he conveyed to them urgently. "A big one! Crooks running all over the place!"

Robin straightened, snapping into business mode. "We're on our way!" he told Cyborg, snapping his communicator closed.

He reached for Starfire's hand and without hesitation she took it, and lifted him into the air.

-TT-_  
_

_Boom!_

Blackfire aimed a glowing fist at another part of the hallway between cells. The doors reflected her starbolts off their metal surfaces but, she'd quickly learned, the stone partitions between the jail cells crumbled magnificently with a well-aimed bolt.

She let loose.

_Boom!_

A hole was blown open at once. Orange jump-suited prisoners started in alarm as the wall was turned into rubble before their eyes. As Blackfire passed on, they started edging towards the hole, eventually scrabbling over the debris pile and scattering to the four winds down both directions of the hall.

The Tamaranian paid them no need, reveling in the destruction and chaos she was causing. She giggled maniacally, shooting her starbolts every which way. Alarms were blaring, and people were shouting, and flashes of green popped all around her.

She loved every minute.

_Boom!_

A cloud of smoke went up as another wall was blown to chunky bits. Blackfire laughed in delight and floated through the hall, passing into another corridor. It looked like she was coming to a high-security area. There were more cameras in the hall (which she of course took out promptly with her starbolts), and fewer cells. Right before she came to a joining, where the hall opened up into a larger room, her path was blocked by three prison guards, who immediately pointed their weapons at her.

"Freeze!" one of them yelled.

Blackfire sniffed, unruffled. "Impertinent fools," she huffed.

Her eyes and hands glowed green and she launched herself at the guards in a red and black blur. Her eyebeams felled the first man easily before she'd even reached the group. Whirling about she planted a starbolt in the gut of the second guard, blowing him back several feet. With a feral grin she twisted around again, grabbing the gun of the last guard and shoving it in a violent uppercut to his chin. He went down with a pained grunt and she wrest the weapon from his hands and, with a swift green burst, melted it into useless scrap metal.

The fight now over, she tossed aside the ruined gun, set down on her feet and casually stepped over the prone bodies of the prison guards.

The larger room beyond the hall was spacious, bathed in pale white light, and utterly uninteresting to her. Her eyes made only a quick scan of it before she entered, already heading for another doorway on the left.

"Well," a female voice said suddenly. "I _must_ be hallucinating because there is no way you're who I think you are."

Blackfire whipped her head about and started a little. In a little cell, behind a thick glass panel, was another Tamaranian. Dark-haired like her, same violet-gray eyes and heavy lashes. It was almost like looking at mirror-image of herself, except older.

The other Tamaranian was inspecting her nails nonchalantly, as if the Teen Tyrant merited very little attention from her.

"_My_ little sister is too much of a goody-two-shoes to orchestrate a jailbreak," she was saying.

Blackfire disliked this girl immediately. With a scowl, she stepped up to the glass and crossed her arms.

"And just who are _you?_" she demanded.

The other girl gave a coy, innocent look. "You mean you don't know me?" she asked, lightly mocking and amused.

The Teen Tyrant passed an unimpressed look over her mirror self. "You bear a… vague, passing resemblance to someone I know," she said indifferently, giving a little dismissive wave. "But she is a weak coward unfit to share the name as I. And you are clearly too vulgar and rude to be her," she added snootily.

"I could say the same for you, starshine," the other girl shot back. Her eyes dropped to the emerald necklace Blackfire was still wearing. "Nice ice. It wouldn't happen to be from the Centauri moons would it?" she queried in a sickeningly sweet tone.

"Do not speak to me as if you know me!" Blackfire snapped, her hands fisting at her sides. The younger Tamaranian's eyes burned with anger and a deep-seated hatred. "You are nothing like my sister." she whispered in a low growl.

"And you're nothing like mine." The Not Sister straightened up a little from where she leaned on her cell wall. "So, are you going to bust me out of here or what?"

Blackfire didn't dignify that with a reply. "Humph!" she huffed, turning swiftly around and storming off.

"I'll take it that's a no then." The Not Sister put her hand on the glass and called lazily after the Tyrant's back. "Oh and by the way, sis? Black is _so_ not your color."

-TT-

The prison courtyard was already in chaos when Cyborg and Beast Boy emerged from the shadows of Raven's soul self. The black raven dissolved into Raven's form and all three of them had a split second to take stock of the situation.

A large group of orange-clad prisoners were rushing the gate. The prison guards were putting up a good fight to try and prevent them, but they were outnumbered. The wall of the prison across from them bore a resemblance to Swiss cheese, with several large prominent holes, out of which poured smoke and escapees. Shouts rang across the plaza and alarms were blaring inside and out.

Beast Boy was the first to react, leaning over and morphing until he towered over the crowd in T-Rex form. Giving an impressive roar he charged the men going for the gate.

The sight of a giant green razor-toothed dinosaur running towards them was excellent incentive for the prisoners to turn tail and run screaming the other direction.

Cyborg had his sonic cannon out a moment later and pointed it towards a group nervously trying to edge around Beast Boy's flank. The beam swept the ground by their feet, upending them all in a neat line. Prison guards rushed forward to take over and restrain them.

Then Raven raised a hand and black energy swirled up from the ground and wrapped around several prisoners stumbling over the rubble of one of the holes. With a shove, she sent them back inside. Her dark matter next enveloped the chunks and pieces of rubble and reconstructed a semblance of the former wall, plugging the hole up with a solid barrier.

She felt movement behind her, and ducked just in time to avoid a clumsy strike by a bald prisoner with a broken nose. While he was still off-balance, the thick green tail of Beast Boy lashed out and caught him squarely across the back, making him fly forward and face-plant into the rubble.

The changeling gave a look of grim satisfaction, roared again, and charged forward at another group trying to sneak past him to the front gate.

"Move in!" Cyborg ordered, shooting his sonic cannon off in a long burst.

Raven moved towards another breach, already using her powers to shift the rubble and block the openings on either side of her. The dim corridor of the prison hallway enveloped her, and she blinked, her eyes adjusting to the low light. She sealed up the exit behind her before turning to float down the hall.

There didn't seem to be very many escapees down this corridor, though there were plenty of faint yells and footsteps and running sounds that indicated the action was somewhere nearby. Raven hurried towards the commotion, making cursory temporary repairs to the cells as she passed. She soon found herself in one of the high-security sectors, where a few of Jump City's more notorious supervillains were normally imprisoned. Raven fervently hoped whoever was pulling the jailbreak hadn't busted anyone from here out.

The empath found herself in one of the hubs that connected passageways. Across from her she spotted the cell holding Starfire's older sister—still imprisoned, thank Azar. The elder Tamaranian princess looked bored in spite of the blaring alarms and general excitement of the jailbreak. Raven's gaze passed over her briefly, as she spotted a trio of unconscious guards and floated over to tend to them. She bent over one, her hand checking his neck and finding the strong pulse there.

"Oh hey, Raven. You just missed my little sister's evil twin," Blackfire piped up casually, as if just noticing the empath.

Raven turned to look at the other girl, blinking.

"Beg your pardon?" she asked.

"You heard me," Blackfire said, shrugging, offering no further elaboration.

Raven frowned and stepped forward as if to ask something, but she was interrupted as a rumble sounded throughout the prison and the very ground beneath her feet buckled. She staggered, wobbled off-balance, flailing her arms. As the ground settled, a new klaxon started blaring, adding to the din, and the lights in the room flashed red.

"That can't be good," Raven groaned.

A panicky voice came over the PA system.

"_Red alert! Priority Cells One and Two compromised! Cinderblock and Plasmus are loose! I repeat: Cinderblock and Plasmus are loose!"_

The empath put up her hood and phased through the wall, vanishing from the room a moment later.

This was going to be a _long_ day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As soon as I decided to send Blackfire and Red Robin to do a prison break I knew I _had_ to do the encounter between the Blackfires. I just had to. It was too perfect.


	5. Mirrors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now! The moment you've all been waiting for! The chapter where I press my foot firmly on the accelerator and kick things into high gear. It was a blast to write and I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I do.
> 
> HANG ON TIGHT READERS 'CAUSE IT'S FULL SPEED AHEAD FROM HERE ON OUT.

Cyborg had his cannon at eye-level, all business as he ran down the dimly lit prison hallway. Up ahead, a prisoner skidded around the corner, double-took, and hastily stumbled to reverse his momentum and turn back the other way.

The half-robot felled him with a quick shot. He didn't even bother to stop as he ran past the prisoner's crumpling form. There was no time to waste.

He counted corridors as they breezed past. _Three… Four…_ Many of the overhead lights had been shattered in this hall, so he knew he was on the right trail. _Five… Six…_

Then he was there and it was on the left—the huge bolted metal door of Priority Cell Three, Overload's cell. And he was just in time; there was a small dark figure already at the controls, tapping away.

"Oh no you _don't!_" Cyborg growled.

He fired a sonic volley straight at the figure's hands. It blasted the panel, sending up a cloud of sparks that made the figure yelp and jump back in alarm. Cyborg pointed his cannon at the shadowed silhouette.

"Hands up, whoever you are!" he ordered.

The figure raised his hands—

—only to throw down a handful of metal capsules to the floor. The capsules popped with several loud bangs and released a cloud of smoke into the air. Cyborg fired his sonic cannon into the smoke, rushing forward in pursuit. Losing all normal visibility in the cloud, he focused through his cybernetic eye, scanning in infrared. His target appeared as a spot of bright orange, moving fast, running away from him.

Cyborg ran after him, pausing only long enough to steady his aim as he shot after the jail-breaker.

His infrared readout flickered suddenly, glitching much like the map earlier that afternoon. For a dizzying moment, Cyborg's ability to see became nil in both eyes. He came to a disoriented halt, rubbing furiously at both his human and cybernetic eyes to clear them. The infrared came back, now showing two bright person-shaped patches ahead of him. He raised his cannon and charged forward with a yell.

Just at that moment, the smoke cleared to reveal Raven and Beast Boy. The changeling immediately flinched and put up his hands.

"Woah woah, take it easy, it's us!" he called.

Cyborg simmered in frustration, but halted and stowed his canon back in his arm.

"You two all right?" he asked.

Beast Boy nodded. "Yeah. Recaptured a bunch of guys. Guards are busy rounding up the last escapees now," he said, pointing back down the hallway they'd come from.

"The normal ones that is." Raven amended. "Is Overload—?"

"Locked-up where he should be," Cyborg confirmed, nodding. "I _almost_ had the little punk breaking him out too. Did you see him?"

"Sort of," said Beast Boy, scratching behind his head sheepishly. "We were too far down the hall, but I did catch a quick glimpse of someone. Maybe."

Raven looked mildly surprised. She turned to Beast Boy, confused. "I thought that was Robin," she said.

"Nah-uh, that was _totally_ not Robin," he disagreed.

"It felt like him."

Cyborg waved a hand. "Never mind that now. Are there any more prisoners loose?"

Raven turned back to Cyborg and answered, business-like, "The warden says they can handle whoever's left."

"Good. Then we need to stop Plasmus and Cinderblock before they get too far into the city." Cyborg was already scanning with his arm, looking for the tell-tale signs of monster rampage. "This way!"

He led them through the building to an auxiliary exit, then out into the pale afternoon sun. There were no more orange jumpsuits running around outside the walls, just armor-clad guards securing things, watching over the roughly-repaired breaches in the walls, leading prisoners in cuffs back to their cells. But beyond the perimeter, off in the distance, the Titans could already hear faint cries of frightened civilians, hear the crunch of metal and stone.

Cyborg checked his arm for a moment, and then pointed slightly to the right.

"Big Slimy and Smelly and Rock Brains are dead ahead that way. C'mon!"

Raven took to the air and Beast Boy—shifting into pterodactyl form—followed with Cyborg. They were gone from the grounds in only a moment.

-TT-

"Cinderblock—_srrnk_—can't head him—_shrrnk_—coming your—"

Robin dropped one hand from Starfire's, still holding tightly with the other as she flew them through the streets, and grabbed for his communicator, pulling it up to face level.

"What was that? I didn't copy."

Cyborg's voice came through the transmission, slightly garbled from static and background noise.

"I said you're about to have very big company!" he repeated.

Before Robin could ask what he meant, there was a large SUV flying through the air towards them. Starfire gripped his hand with both of hers tightly and swerved upwards in the air to avoid it, jerking his arm. A wide-eyed Robin curled his legs up into a tight ball as the tires grazed the air right below him, missing him by inches; he felt the wind of it as it whooshed by. Now on high alert, adrenaline racing, he looked ahead to see Cinderblock standing in the middle of the street, roaring in frustration, apparently very upset that he hadn't managed to smash the two Titans into paste on his first attempt.

His jaw set grimly.

"Looks like our favorite sparring partner found us," he said.

Stowing his communicator away, he nodded up at Starfire, and she didn't even hesitate. Her fingers tightening on his wrist, she swung him around in a wide arc and, with a yell, flung him at Cinderblock.

Robin pulled out and extended his bo staff in one fluid motion. Making use of the extra momentum provided by Starfire, he gave a shout and brought the staff crashing down on Cinderblock's head.

The rock monster bellowed in rage, swatting at the young Titan, who flipped deftly over him and landed solidly on his feet. Cinderblock had no time to turn around and recover, for a volley of starbolts struck him the next instant. Starfire dived right in, hurling her bolts forcefully. Cinderblock threw a clumsy punch at her that missed by miles, and Robin was already moving in as well, striking the monster's concrete shins and knees.

He roared.

-TT-

Plasmus squealed. He covered his face with both hands as the sharp talons of eagle-form Beast Boy raked over him.

Cyborg shot off a sonic beam that blew a hole straight through the creature's head. This being Plasmus however, he quickly reformed and spat a mouthful of acidic green spooge at the half-robot. Cyborg ducked down behind some newspaper stands for cover, and heard sizzling drops hitting the metal and pavement.

Plasmus reached up and swatted Beast Boy out of the air next, sending the changeling crashing into the roof of a car with a pained grunt. Beast Boy pulled himself upright, shaking his head. He regained his senses just in time to jump up, shift into a bullfrog, and leap away from a cluster of flailing purple tendrils that Plasmus shot at him.

The creature's tentacles grabbed after the shape-shifter, curling this way and that trying to catch hold of the small green darting frog.

Raven moved in, blocking Plasmus from Beast Boy, and raised her hands.

Black energy whipped out from her, lancing across the street, the sharp edges slicing neatly through Plasmus's flailing tentacles. The pieces fell in useless chunks of lifeless goo to the street.

Cyborg was out from his cover now, and blasting away again and again at the main conglomeration of slime that was Plasmus. The creature wailed as the sonic bursts opened hole after hole in his body, almost faster than he could seal them.

Then from behind burst a green rhinoceros, blowing straight through Plasmus. Muck sprayed everywhere, splattering across the street. Beast Boy's heavy plodding feet slid in it a bit as he dug in his heels and came to a stop. He stumbled a bit, regained his balance, and resumed human form, his shoulders slumping in exhaustion.

"Did that… get him?" the changeling asked breathlessly.

"Almost," Raven said, noting how the puddles of purple mud were starting to twitch and slide back towards each other.

Cyborg shot rapidly at two quivering lumps trying to coalesce and rise from the street. The lumps seemed to shriek as they were scattered and blown apart once again.

"What I wouldn't give for one of Robin's freeze disks right now," he muttered to himself.

"Let him reform," Raven said abruptly. She took a lotus position in the air. "I'll try to knock him out once he's all together."

"You sure?" Cyborg asked uncertainly, giving her a doubtful look, his cannon still trained on the puddles.

Beast Boy was slightly more confident.

"Go get him Rae! I'll cover you!" he told her with an excited grin.

Moving in front of her, her crouched forward and shifted into a stegosaurus. His spiked tail immediately squashed a clump of Plasmus goop that was reforming too close for comfort. Cyborg continued to shoot uneasily at moving piles squelching across the street.

Raven closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It was hard to focus through her headache. She cleared her mind and tried to concentrate.

The sound of Cyborg's sonic blasts increased in frequency and desperation.

"Raven!" he called nervously. "He's pulling himself together!"

Raven exhaled through her mouth, finding her center.

"Any time now, Raven!" came Cyborg's voice.

"Azarath…"

Plasmus gurgled as he reemerged and sent out streams of semi-liquid junk.

"…Metrion…"

She heard several loud but ineffectual splats as the slimy projectiles bounced harmlessly off Beast Boy's hide.

"…ZINTHOS!"

Her eyes popped open, glowing white. A perfect negative replica of herself floated up from her body, lunging over Beast Boy's shield spines straight into Plasmus. The creature squealed as her soul self disappeared inside.

All light vanished. She reached out with her mind, stripping away the feral rage and chemically-induced clouds of violent intent until she found the quivering human center. All she had to do was touch it.

Plasmus's consciousness went out like a light as her soul self brushed it. The far-off screeches ceased. Everything tilted and Raven rode the momentum out of the darkness, returning to her body as the purple bulk of Plasmus lost cohesion and broke, spilling his pale human form out onto the sidewalk.

-TT-

Robin jumped up and swung hard, striking Cinderblock squarely across the concrete jaw.

Cinderblock stumbled back, slow to recover. He turned away from the Titan and took a few lumbering steps, only for Starfire to deliver a hard uppercut to his face and send him reeling back again.

The Titans played ping-pong with him once more, Robin ducking low and jabbing at his feet, and then Starfire blasting him across the flank with her starbolts. He was staggering back into Robin's range now.

Robin leapt up onto Cinderblock's back, his staff catching around what passed for the monster's neck. Cinderblock bellowed in angry annoyance, twisting around sharply as Robin clung on for dear life.

"Starfire, now!" he shouted.

Starfire dove in, grabbed hold of a street lamp, and with a firm tug ripped it neatly from its socket. Cinderblock was reaching back to yank Robin off him. Before he could, she zipped in, wrapping the end of the lamp around one of his wrists. She folded the metal over and then pulled down with all her strength, bringing the rock monster's arm against his side.

He grabbed for her, stupidly, with his other hand, as she disappeared around behind him, which allowed her to fly right around with the rest of the street lamp and pin that arm down too. Starfire made another swift pass around and then bent the metal into a loose knot at the front, groaning mightily with the effort.

Cinderblock bellowed, his arms now trapped and useless, and jerked his head forward. The motion dislodged Robin, who yelped and crashed into Starfire on the way down, sending them both to the pavement.

They landed in a painful heap, tangled together.

Growling, Cinderblock raised a heavy stone foot to crush them.

Starfire was up first, and simply left the ground, slammed her hands into Cinderblock's stone chest, and pushed, carrying him through the air and down the street. Their flight ended with a crash as Starfire tossed him down into a wall. She moved in for a volley and managed to throw out a few starbolts before the monster's leg kicked up, knocking her back. She went sailing into the side of a building.

Robin had managed to get to his feet now. Touching his side in a daze he looked towards their opponent.

Cinderblock was struggling to get up, but with his arms pinned it was near-impossible. The Boy Wonder shook himself as the stone giant flailed uselessly. The moment to act and bring this fight to a finish had to be right now.

He pulled an explosive disk from his belt and hurled it towards Cinderblock. His eyes tracked it as it arced straight and true across the distance.

_BLAM!_

It blew up in Cinderblock's face. The concussive force almost knocked Robin off his feet again. But it also made Cinderblock give a long groan as his head tilted back, eyes closing, and body crumpling limply to the street.

The cloud of dust that rose up mingled with the smoke from the explosive. Robin coughed, blinking through the dull haze.

"Starfire?" he called, looking about for her. "You okay?"

He heard her voice faintly from underneath a car, down the street behind him. "I am unharmed!" she assured him.

Robin stepped over to Cinderblock's prone form, gazing down and making sure he was out for the count. His adrenaline rush was fading, the excitement brought on by the unexpected battle wearing off.

Now he was starting to ask questions. Like, how had Cinderblock broken out of prison, for starters? The warden had assured him the new security measures were top-notch and he'd looked them over himself only last week. Titanium walls, electrified floor, reinforced steel ceiling beams… the only way to let him out was by opening the door. It needed a special access card only the warden possessed but he guessed someone dedicated and talented enough could probably crack the encryption on the panel computer itself. At least, that's what he would have done.

And how many other criminals were running free right now? Robin was going to be very irritated if they had to catch Mumbo, Control Freak, and the rest _again_. (During the weeks prior the Titans had been very dedicated in putting the usual troublemakers away before Raven's birthday came, to clear up any potential disasters or distractions that might ruin the big day for her. _So much for that_, he thought crossly.)

Sighing, he straightened up, intending to pull out his communicator and see where the other Titans were. He heard Starfire's voice saying something, and caught the tail end of it.

"—and she was very_ rude_ to me!"

The voice had come from above him, on the rooftops.

Robin started, raised his face towards the roof in confusion, and was about to ask why she'd flown up there when another voice stopped him.

His voice.

"It's okay, Blackfire. I'm sure she was just jealous," it said. "For what it's worth, I think you're prettier than your sister in every universe."

"Oh, do not flatter me," came "Blackfire's" voice again, sulky and grumbling.

Robin's mouth went dry and he took a step back in alarm. "Starfire?" he blurted.

"Yes?"

She spoke from beside him now, at his shoulder. He whirled about to see her standing there, red hair slightly mussed but whole and unmistakable.

His throat was too clogged with bewilderment to speak, but he didn't have to, for his other self's voice drifted down from above.

"No, really, it's the truth. Your sister was interesting but she could never—"

Starfire's eyes widened and she gasped. "It is him!" she cried.

Without warning or pausing to think she flung up a starbolt.

It burst against the roof's edge, startling two figures as it popped just beneath their feet. They looked down at the two Titans.

"Well, well, look who's here," the boy said, giving a grin. "We came to see the show Cinderblock was putting on. Looks like we found something better."

They jumped down to street level, setting Robin and Starfire immediately on edge. Robin raised his staff and Starfire charged up her hands as they squared off against the twisted mirror-images of themselves.

"Do not be so jumpy," the girl chastised them playfully. "We merely wish to… talk. Is that not correct, Red Robin?"

Robin gaped at his counterpart's face, _his_ face, his build, himself—if he'd been given an evil makeover. It didn't take more than an instant of his eyes scanning over them, over their clothes—all red and black and silver, tighter-fitting, in the girl's case skimpier—for him to know exactly who they were: Blackfire and Red Robin, his and Starfire's warped counterparts from the Teen Tyrants.

"You!" he breathed.

Red Robin smirked. "So you remember us? I'm touched."

The shock wearing off quickly, Robin narrowed his eyes. "You're behind the jewelry store robberies aren't you? And the jailbreak," he deduced.

"Guilty as charged," Red Robin said, giving a mocking salute.

Robin gripped his staff a little tighter. "How did you get here?" he demanded. "Raven shut the door to your world!"

"We did the opening of a new one of course," Blackfire chirped up cheerfully. She floated casually by Red Robin's shoulder, deliberately mimicking Starfire's position by Robin.

The Boy Wonder watched both Tyrants warily. "Why? What do you want?"

"To cause as much chaos and mayhem and steal as much stuff as possible," Red Robin explained with a nonchalant shrug. "Duh." His gaze shifted to Starfire, trailing over her figure slowly and _very_ appreciatively. "Hel-_lo_… you're even cuter up close."

Starfire drifted a little closer in the air to Robin, uncomfortable.

Red Robin's grin widened, and he put his hands on his hips. "Blackfire, why don't you take care of Spikey while I get acquainted with Redhead You?"

Starfire expected her counterpart to protest this, but when her gaze darted over she saw that the dark-haired Tamaranian had her eyes fixed on Robin, looking at him almost… hungrily. They glinted with something feral.

"Gladly," she purred.

Before any of them could blink, Blackfire lunged forward, grabbing Robin up by the front of his tunic, and then jetting off at high speed over the rooftops. Starfire only had time to hear him yelp in surprise; when she turned, her darker self was already fading fast into the distance.

"Robin!"

She rose to pursue them, but she didn't get far. Something curled around her ankles and yanked hard, pulling her down.

"Eeep!"

She managed to brace herself and take the impact with the concrete with her hands. She twisted around and kicked off the loops of the grapple line tangled around her feet. The delay had cost her. It had allowed Red Robin to close the distance between them. He stood a short ways off, curling the other end of his grapple lazily around his hand.

"So what's _your_ name?" he asked, still grinning at her in a manner she found entirely unwelcome.

Starfire gave a quick glance over her shoulder at the empty sky behind her. She'd never catch up to Blackfire now. She'd have to hope Robin could bring her down from the air somewhere close. She didn't like being separated from him like this, and left to fend off his alternate self.

She sighed in resignation. Fend him off she would though. He was making a move towards her—she sprang up and blasted him with her starbolts. He took the shot right in the gut and was blown back several yards.

He raised himself with a groan. He had a split-second to see another volley heading for him, and used it to flip himself backwards with one hand out of range. Starfire was already whirling about, shooting at him again. She darted a desperate glance to the rear.

_Hang on Robin_, she thought.

-TT-

The wind whipped his hair and clothes into a frenzy. Buildings passed underneath in a dizzying blur. His heart raced, and all the while Blackfire laughed. Her grayish eyes were wild with the thrill.

Robin clutched at her fingers, scratching, trying to pry them off him. His staff had been lost ages ago, plummeting out of his hands to somewhere unknown in the streets. He craned his head, looking down at the ground far below. If he did manage to get loose, he'd have a long way to fall.

Nothing for it then, he decided. "Let… me… _down!_" He made a hard fist and punched up at Blackfire's face.

She moved her head to the side, neatly dodging the blow. "I do not believe you said the magic—" Blackfire cut off with a screech of pain as, on the way back down, Robin's hand tangled in her hair, grabbed a good chunk, and wrenched harshly, pulling her with him.

Her flight path banked and lost altitude. They flipped upside-down a moment in a stomach-turning barrel roll. Then Blackfire righted herself again, livid.

"_Clorbag!"_ she sputtered. One hand released him and raised a starbolt. "You—"

But Robin took advantage of her distraction. He reached around behind her quick as lightning and planted one of his disks on her back.

"Huh?" she said, her anger melting into confusion as she heard the strange beeping noise.

_BANG!_

The explosion was deafening, and jolted them forward. Blackfire plunged from the air in a daze, dropping Robin, too stunned and semi-conscious to fly.

Robin fumbled in his belt for his grappling hook as he fell. The ground was coming up quickly and he didn't have a lot of time.

He found it, pulled it out and shot it off frantically.

It caught, and he jerked to a stop a few feet from the ground, his arms almost tearing from their sockets. Robin bit his lip and let the swing carry him; at the lowest point he let go, freefell for a moment before twisting his body and hitting the street in a roll. Blackfire crashed into a pile of trash bags lined up at the curb a moment later.

Robin came to rest on his side, and lay there a moment. Breathing heavily, he stumbled to his feet, and rubbed his shoulders with a groan. A dull ache was already pulsing through the strained muscles of his arms.

But he had bigger things to worry about. Blackfire was already staggering to her feet atop the trash pile. She reached back, lightly touching the frazzled hair behind her head. She laughed.

"That was most… clever!" she complimented. Charging up her starbolts she took a defensive position. "This shall be a most glorious battle!"

"We don't have to do this!" Robin said quickly, stalling for time. "Just take whatever you've already stolen, get back to the door to your world, and we'll let you leave without any hassle."

She huffed derisively. "I never do the departing of anywhere without leaving some piece of it destroyed and smoking."

Robin took his ready stance with a grim expression. "I can't let you do that."

"Then you shall have to stop me," Blackfire taunted, a self-satisfied vindictive gleam in her eyes. She beckoned him forward. "Come Robin," she crooned, "let us see what you are made of."

The Titan exhaled slowly, steeling himself, his mind working overtime. The fight was not in his favor. He was currently unarmed, she had an unlimited supply of starbolts. She was stronger, and he had no defense except quick reflexes. Starfire always held back a little whenever they sparred, but he had no guarantee that her double would do the same. He circled Blackfire slowly, making no move to attack.

At his hesitation, Blackfire pointed her arm towards the front of a building and blasted it with a starbolt.

Robin flinched as the explosion rent the air, sending shards of glass flying. Startled screams could be heard from inside the building. As Blackfire moved to target another storefront, Robin snapped forward, his impulses taking over. He rushed the alien girl and took a swing at her.

Blackfire side-stepped at just the last second. Quickly lifting off and putting some distance between them again, she sent a rapid burst of starbolts his way. But Robin was quicker, and performed several rapid back springs to avoid them. Flipping upright again he pulled a bird-a-rang from his belt and hurled it at her.

She blasted it to smithereens before it reached her.

Backing up now, Robin paid a quick glance to the restaurant Blackfire had blown a hole in. No one inside seemed hurt, he noted with relief.

From the corner of his eye he caught Blackfire taking aim at the buildings again. In a flash he whipped out another bird-a-rang. This one made it all the way to his target, striking her in the hand. Blackfire squeaked, dispelling her starbolt as she grabbed her injured wrist.

"Don't make the same mistake twice, 'Blackfire'," he warned her in a low growl.

Grinning, the Tamaranian rose further into the air. "That is more like it."

She dove at him.

And they danced.

Robin stayed mainly on the defensive, dodging her blows and starbolts with agility. He used his weapons sparingly. He didn't want to waste his arsenal and be left defenseless with an empty belt against such an opponent. She goaded him from time to time, when she thought the fight was getting boring, with taunts and threats against civilian property, though she never deliberately fired into a building again. Robin was grateful for that at least. The scuffle took them through a few busy streets, and Robin had to roll and jump out of the way of swerving cars and traffic. Fortunately most of the drivers and civilians turned around and fled the other way when they saw him coming, pursued relentlessly by the dark-haired Teen Tyrant. She giggled gleefully as they battled, thoroughly enjoying herself. If she had been paying more attention she would have noticed how Robin was leading them back towards Starfire—or where he hoped Starfire still was—edging them on subtly bit by bit to the place where they had left Cinderblock.

He'd feel much better with reinforcements backing him up.

Robin found an opening, a brief lull in Blackfire's assault, and seized it, breaking off the fight and ducking through a narrow alley, running at full sprint away from her.

The move surprised Blackfire for a moment; she floated in the air dully and only zipped to the alley opening in time to see Robin disappear around the next corner.

She sighed.

"It is no fun when they play the hard to get," she said, flying after him.

-TT-

Beast Boy stood over Plasmus cautiously. He was snoring soundly through his nose, his face resting on the pavement. The shape-shifter nudged him with a foot.

No response.

Beast Boy leaned over to poke him in the ribs.

Raven's hand shot out and smacked the back of his head. "Beast Boy!" she snapped as he yelped in surprise. "Leave the man alone," she scolded.

The changeling grumbled and rubbed his head. Raven brushed bits of lint and slime off her cape, looking nonchalant. Both of them glanced up at the sound of sirens. A police van braked to a halt nearby. The back doors opened and armored officers hopped down and moved to collect Plasmus.

Cyborg looked over from where he was welding back together the pieces of a mailbox that had been sprayed with acid during the fight. A white-clad attendant in hospital scrubs clipped a breathing mask over the human-form Plasmus's face, and attached a tube leading to a metal canister—probably full of nitrous oxide or some other anesthetic, to keep him under while they got him back to the prison. The officers hoisted him up into the van, being careful not to jostle him too much, lest they wake him.

The half-robot finished his task and stood up, brushing off his hands. He came up and tapped one of the officers on the shoulder.

"What's the situation back at State Penitentiary?" he asked.

"Things are under control now, thanks to you," the officer reported. "APB on Cinderblock reported him lying unconscious at Sullivan and Twenty-Second. We've just dispatched a squad to pick him up."

Cyborg nodded in acknowledgment. "Good."

The officer rejoined his fellows, loading up the van and taking witness statements. Cyborg took the opportunity to make a quick scan. He tuned his instruments towards the intersection near Fifth, where the event was.

Beast Boy watched the van drive off, and slung his arm around Raven's shoulders with a grin. "How's your headache?" he asked.

She smiled faintly. "Still aching," she replied, in good humor.

"Need another neck rub?" Beast Boy offered.

"Maybe later," she brushed him off.

Beast Boy pouted, but recovered his dignity and swung them around to face Cyborg.

"That weird portal-thingy still weird?"

Cyborg gave a humorless laugh, tapping the readouts on his arm.

"Very."

-TT-

Robin skidded around the next corner, then ducked behind a low garden wall. He pressed his back up against it, breathing heavily. He could still feel the heat of Blackfire's last starbolts behind him, singeing the hairs on the back of his arms and neck. That had been too close a call. Was she still on his tail?

He peeked out from behind the wall. No sign of her for the moment, but that wouldn't last long. Robin pulled out his communicator. His fingers fumbled as he pressed the button.

"Starfire? Can you hear me?"

No answer. Of course. She would be fighting the other him. He hoped.

The sound of a starbolt explosion came from behind, somewhere close.

Frantically he adjusted the channel and yelled into the comm. "Cyborg! Come in Cyborg!"

-TT-

Cyborg kept his arm on scanner setting and pulled out his separate communicator to answer. He flipped it open, his eyes still on the readouts.

"I hear you, Robin. Where are you?"

Raven walked over with Beast Boy. "Are you and Starfire at the prison?" she asked.

Robin's voice was slightly breathless as he replied, "We never made it to the prison! Cinderblock intercepted us."

"You okay dudes?" Beast Boy piped up worriedly.

There was a sigh of exasperation. "We're fine, we beat Cinderblock and—"

Robin's voice cut out abruptly as a squeal of static invaded the channel.

"Whoops," said Cyborg, quickly adjusting the settings on the comm. The static wavered, spiked, and then finally faded back into Robin's voice.

"Cyborg? Cyborg!" he was calling.

"Right here."

A relieved sigh. Then Robin asked, "What's wrong with the T-communicators?"

Cyborg grimaced and made a sheepish face, looking at Raven and Beast Boy. "Ah, yeah. Sorry, I uh, meant to tell you… we've been having some kind of weird interference problem," he explained. Turning back to the communicator he went on, "Nothing too serious, just a lot of static and distortion popping up from time to—"

"Never mind, it's not important," Robin interrupted. Quickly, he said, "Listen: I need you guys over here right now! Starfire and I are being attacked by…" There was a slight pause as Robin audibly struggled to find the words to explain the situation adequately. "…ourselves!" he finally finished.

Cyborg blinked. He glanced over at Beast Boy and Raven, but they were just as baffled as he was. The half-robot raised his communicator a little higher.

"Uh… come again?" he queried.

"There's no time! Just get—"

A loud bang sounded. They heard Robin shout in the background and then the line went dead.

"Robin?" Cyborg's fingers tightened their grip on the communicator, worry now coursing through him. "Robin!"

Nothing.

-TT-

Robin held his wrist gingerly, and glared across the distance at Blackfire. His fingers still burned from the starbolt she'd used to shoot the communicator from his hand and send it rattling down the sidewalk, startling him to his feet.

Blackfire lowered her arm, fists still glowing.

"Found you!" she gushed victoriously.

Robin dropped his wrist and struck a defensive martial arts pose, hands raised and ready.

He just had to hold her off long enough.


	6. Parallels

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had so much fun writing this chapter. Like, a ridiculous amount of fun. I hope y'all like it too.

The shimmering patch of air had by now attracted some curious onlookers, in spite of the Jump City Police's attempts to ward them off. They managed to keep everyone a safe distance away though.

And good thing too. The curtain of wavering air seemed to be expanding. The edges were now drifting over the sidewalk, brushing up against the buildings on either side of the street.

The officers looked at each other, apprehensive. The one who'd spoken with the Titans was the first to break the uneasy silence.

"I don't like the looks o' this," he told them. "Think we better move the barriers back another block and call it inna the station, get those buildings evacuated. Just in case."

The others agreed quickly and moved to begin knocking on doors and rushing people out of there. The street cop turned his attention to the civilians standing behind the barrier, gawking.

"All right people, back it up!" he barked, extending his hands and motioning for the onlookers to retreat. "Don't want none o' you getting' sucked inna that thing."

They complied, slowly backing up, sending nervous looks up at the portal.

The cop gave his own nervous glance over his shoulder at the circle of disturbed air as he moved the onlookers away. Hopefully once the Titans were finished helping with that jailbreak, they'd be able to come back and deal with whatever that was.

Hopefully.

-TT-

"Robin! Dammit Robin, answer me!" Cyborg yelled. The communicator remained silent and with a growl the half-robot set about bringing up the GPS tracking, to find out where the Titans leader was.

The screen glitched, as usual, and Cyborg smacked the device in frustration.

"Aw come on, not _now,_" he groaned.

While he struggled with the device, Raven and Beast Boy watched helplessly, frozen by their worry.

"What did he mean they're being attacked by themselves?" Beast Boy squealed, a few notes of hysteria creeping into his voice. "Is Mirror Master in town? Do Robin and Starfire have evil clones? Are we being invaded by copy-cat shape-shifting aliens?"

Raven rolled her eyes and was about to give a comment about Beast Boy's overactive imagination and the fact that he watched way too many sci-fi movies but something gave her pause. She was remembering back to what Blackfire had said back in the prison.

"_You just missed my little sister's evil twin."_

It had been such an odd thing to say at the time but now with Robin also claiming the presence of evil doppelgangers…

The pieces started coming together in her brain. A mysterious extra-dimensional portal… out of which two people had come… the mental presence outside Overload's cell she'd confused for Robin's… Blackfire's bizarre comment… the familiar energy vibes the portal gave off…

The vibes were familiar, she realized, because they were _hers_. The portal in the city radiated with a trace of her powers… but twisted. Darker, somehow.

"Oh no…" she groaned, putting her face in her hands, as the weight of her revelation fully sank in.

"What?" asked Beast Boy.

Cyborg glanced over from his fiddling. "What is it, Rae?"

Raven peeked out from behind her hands. "Do you remember that time we helped Kilowatt back to his home dimension?" she asked.

"Yeah," Beast Boy answered, looking confused by where she was going.

"Do you remember who we _met_ during that debacle?" Raven continued.

Beast Boy looked blank for a moment, then slapped a hand to his head and groaned. "Aww _man!_ Not the weirdo evil versions of us!"

"You sure that's who is behind this?" Cyborg queried uncertainly.

"I have a suspicion," Raven replied dryly.

Cyborg's arm beeped at that moment, drawing his attention immediately.

"Finally!" he said in relief. "Got a lock on Robin and Starfire's locations. They're separated but they're not that far from each other." He raised his hand. "Let's go!"

-TT-

Starfire ducked underneath a freeze disk spinning towards her face and kept up her steady barrage of starbolts. Finding enough righteous fury to fuel them wasn't hard; Red Robin's skillful dodging of all her shots and his constant come-ons were both plenty annoying and aggravating.

She sent a powerful sweep of starbolt energy from her hands. Red Robin leapt up with a grace she found all-too familiar and neatly back-flipped up onto a streetlight as her starbolts slammed the brick wall with a yellow-green blast, dislodging several bricks.

The Teen Tyrant smirked and jumped off the streetlight with his arms and legs outstretched like a bird's, aiming right for her from above.

Starfire gasped and raised her hands but he crashed into her before she could shoot, the impact taking her out of the air. She felt the wind knocked out of her and her teeth rattled as she slammed against the pavement.

The impact did dislodge the boy from on top of her, though, and both of them tumbled none-too-gracefully away from each other. Starfire rose shakily to her feet. Robin's evil counterpart had knocked them partway into an alley. He was already somersaulting into a low crouch. Realizing how the narrowed alley would favor her opponent, reducing her air maneuverability, Starfire turned toward the opening to get to a more open battleground.

_Wssh!_

Hearing the noise behind her, Starfire "eeep"-ed and instinctively ducked down, covering her head. An explosive disk buzzed over her and slipped between two dumpsters leaning against the buildings to her right.

_Bam!_

The blast rattled the dumpsters and sent garbage and debris spilling across her path, blocking her way to the street.

Panic rising up her throat now, Starfire quickly took advantage of the one thing she had still in her favor—height. She rose up, level with the second story now, fists charging, and looked down at her opponent on the ground.

Red Robin just reached up and swung himself onto the fire escape, ascending rapidly with a series of gymnastic twists. Starfire growled and flung her starbolts and eyebeams at him, but they always seemed just a hair too slow or aimed too high or too low. She could see the infuriating smile on his face as she hit the railings, the windows, the wall, _everything but him_. She might as well have been throwing ping-pong balls at him for all it seemed to phase him.

The Tyrant came to a stop and perched expertly atop the fire escape railing, almost level with her now.

"Sorry, you're going to have to do a little better than that," he teased.

Starfire pointed her hands above her head and flew straight up with a huff. As she cleared the buildings and began streaking low over the rooftops she could still hear Red Robin's voice behind her.

"Aww, where are you going?" he asked in mock disappointment.

She ignored him, increased her speed. Surely he could not follow her forever on foot?

He didn't have to, she found. He just threw an explosive disk at her that knocked her out of the air.

Starfire tasted gravel in her mouth as she smashed face-first onto a roof. Spitting out the dirt and sputtering, she scrambled to her feet, whirling around for fear of being attacked from behind again. The smoke from the blast swirled around her, and she held her glowing hands close to her chest as her eyes darted about.

The smoke cleared. She couldn't see her opponent anywhere.

Then there came a soft, "Ahem!" from the right and Starfire shrieked and turned, coming face to face with Red Robin leaning casually on a low-to-the-roof air conditioner in front of her.

"Miss me?" he quipped.

"I did _not!_" she yelled, taking to the air and sending a long eyebeam blast at him.

She managed to knock him head over tea kettle over the air conditioning unit. There was a _very_ satisfying gravely thud as he tumbled off the far side.

Red Robin groaned as he pulled himself to his feet, one hand grabbing the air conditioner for support. "Ouch. That was harsh," he protested. "All I really want to do is talk to you."

"Perhaps you should not have then taken to throwing things at me!" Starfire snarled, her eyes still smoldering green. She sent a few starbolts his way, which he flipped around and ducked under.

"Heh. Sorry. That's just how Blackfire and I usually flirt." His face took on a strangely genuine warm expression and gentle smile, one that reminded her _so_ much of her Robin it was unsettling. "But all right then," he told her, "since you're not into it, no more shuriken or explosive disks. I promise." He put a hand over his heart to swear his sincerity.

Starfire found herself flustered. Her eyes slipped back to normal as she struggled to come up with a retort, and regain her concentration and clarity of focus. It was too distracting, looking at Red Robin and seeing her Robin's smile and face and movements and agility and—

In the distance a flash of green caught her attention. Her heart crept up into her throat. That had been a starbolt explosion. Her counterpart was near!

Starfire backed up in the air, retreating towards the street. Red Robin saw what she was doing and seized his chance, running up and jumping from the roof. Starfire glanced forward a little too late and yelped as his arms came around her midsection and his momentum tackled her out of the sky. They plummeted towards the street. She managed to seize a joyful thought and halt them before they reached the ground, and she wasted no time in forcibly prying Red Robin's arms off her and tossing him away.

He twisted in midair, landed neatly on his feet, and immediately engaged her in hand-to-hand. Starfire gave ground as she defended, throwing punches, kicks, and the occasional starbolt.

"So I was thinking… You, me, the carnival on the pier tonight?" Red Robin suggested casually, as he dodged her fist aimed at his face. "If you're up for it."

Starfire was not amused.

"You are as bad as the Red X!" she complained disparagingly, floating up a few inches and hurling a starbolt.

"So he's in this universe too, huh?" came the observation she heard Red Robin mutter to himself. Louder he asked her, "Is he as much of an annoying thieving pest here too?"

"He does the hitting on me during battle and I do not appreciate it!" Starfire snapped. "Much like I do not appreciate _your _advances!"

"This is completely different," he dismissed, stepping back to avoid her kick. Giving her that gentle, caring, _Robin_ smile again he said, "Come on, 'Fire, it's me. You know me. I'm Robin."

Oh she had never wanted to punch her boyfriend's face more.

"Not _my_ Robin," she growled.

He pouted with a kicked-puppy look that was absolutely _not_ adorable, Starfire told herself. "Cold," he whined. As he blocked the next several blows she flung at him (sloppily, because her concentration was quite gone at this point and she was far too frustrated to think), and ducked underneath a couple starbolts, he mused, "Is Mr. Uptight Goody Two-Shoes Me really _that _amazing?" Sending her a look of pity he said, "I'll bet he hasn't even had sex with you yet."

Heat rushed to Starfire's face and she turned bright red.

"Th—that is none of your business!" she sputtered.

"I'm right, aren't I?" Red Robin shook his head. "Jeez, what a straight-laced stiff! How he can resist a hottie like you is beyond me. I mean, you're gorgeous," he told her, starstruck.

Blushing even harder, both embarrassed and angry, Starfire expressed all her aggravation through a starbolt-charged fist.

Red Robin side-stepped her punch, as usual, but then abruptly reached up and grabbed her wrist, pulling her swiftly towards him.

Caught off-guard, Starfire found herself swept up against the Tyrant's body. She gasped as he slid his other arm around her waist and leaned her back in a close embrace, almost like he was dipping her. His face came very close to hers. Starfire felt the warmth of his breath and stared wide-eyed up at him, paralyzed. Their mouths were inches apart.

"Come on," he whispered softly, intoxicatingly. "I know this great place for sushi. You like sushi in this universe, right?"

Dazed, Starfire couldn't reply for a moment. Though he only held her wrist and waist, she felt trapped, pinned in place, immovable. Her heart pounded.

She got hold of herself the next instant and immediately brought her knee up into Red Robin's diaphragm.

"_Ulk!"_

He doubled over, releasing her wrist and dropping her waist.

Starfire put significant space between them at once. She cupped her hands over her face, willing her cheeks to stop flushing and cool down to their normal temperature.

She was in over her head, she decided. She continued to back away, fumbling in her pocket for her communicator to call for back up, keeping her eyes fixed on Red Robin, who was clutching his stomach and starting to look up at her with a pained expression.

"You're really serious about rejecting me, aren't you?" he said a little hoarsely.

Shaking herself, Starfire whirled around and made her escape from the area, calling frantically into her communicator.

"Friends please! Come quickly! I require your assistance!"

-TT-

He snuck through the shadows between the buildings, keeping quiet even though he hadn't seen sight or sound of the Tyrants all day. And that worried him. He had heard through the Brotherhood of Justice about the Tyrants' disastrous attempt on the weapons designs, and had guessed that they would return to the Tower only briefly to lick their wounds before unleashing hell on the commercial district to make themselves feel better. That was what they always did after a failed attack, and he had come to stop them as usual, to complicate and frustrate their thefts and vandalism.

Only they never showed. The expected barrage of robberies didn't come.

He was heading for the marina now. Something was up. There had to be a reason the Tyrants hadn't shown up, and whatever it was it couldn't be good.

He ducked down behind a car. He could see the Tower across the bay from here. It loomed above the water menacingly, reminding the city who lorded over it. There didn't seem to be anything amiss but—

Wait.

He peered at the Tower. Bringing out a set of binoculars from his belt he brought them up to his face.

There was a flicker of something in the air just above the Tower. A feathery edge of disturbed space, like a mirage. He thought he saw Red Raven and three others near it at first, but they were gone the next time he blinked, leaving just the rippling vaporous air.

_Hmm…_ he thought to himself, lowering his binoculars and studying the Tower a good long moment. _I'd say that merits further investigation._

Setting off, he kept close to the buildings and sought for a way to reach the island.

-TT-

A blow to his stomach sent him stumbling back, and his shoulders and head met painfully with the brick wall behind him. Robin's vision went fuzzy a moment. He recovered in time to see Blackfire's fist coming. His eyes widened and he dropped down into a crouch just in the nick of time; Blackfire's fist literally sank into the wall where his head had been a moment ago.

Robin came up and planted his elbow in Blackfire's chest. She grunted, her body spasming as she lost her breath a moment. Robin sprinted away into the clear. He grimaced at the sight of the small crater the Tamaranian's fist had made in the sheet-rock.

Blackfire whirled about now, slinging starbolts at him. He ran and felt the hot sizzle of one of them passing over his shoulder.

Using the hood of a car as a springboard, he flipped up onto the top of a semi parked at the curb and threw a handful of bird-a-rangs down at her. She rose and flew straight through the midst of them, blasting a couple out of her path with her eyebeams. Robin yanked himself out of her path as she swooped at him.

She laughed as she came in for another pass, this time snagging him by the front of his collar. Robin found himself yanked off his feet and dangling from her grasp a moment before she none-too-gently dropped him into a storefront.

Robin crashed through the glass window, tucking himself into a tight ball as he landed. He rolled, somersaulted to his feet, and whirled around to fling a disk at her.

She shot it with a starbolt before it reached her, but that was what he'd been counting on. He used the cover of the blast and the smoke to jump back through the broken window, glass scattering beneath his feet, and charge at her with a yell.

Blackfire gasped in surprise and only just barely dodged his punch. She was on the defensive now, ducking and avoiding his blows as they came at her. She blocked as best she could but some of them still got through.

Robin pressed his advantage, attacking quicker and harder, and Blackfire slowly gave ground before him, floating back after each strike.

He was so focused on her retreat he didn't notice the moment her smirk returned.

He aimed a kick at her head. Instead of ducking, she caught his ankle. Robin was startled and caught off balance, and a moment later found himself flipped up over her head. Blackfire threw him down the street, into one of the buildings.

Pain lanced through him as he hit and slid down the bricks to the sidewalk. Robin groaned as he lifted himself to his hands and knees, wiping away a dribble of blood from a cut in his lip.

"Who taught you that?" he rasped, as he struggled to his feet. The move had not been something he'd ever seen in either Starfire or Blackfire's repertoire before.

"You did of course!" Blackfire gushed. She waved her hand casually. "Is it not obvious?"

Robin put his hand on the wall for support as he caught his breath. This was ridiculous. She was wiping the floor with him. And he was running out of weapons. Where were the other Titans?

He had to be close to where Starfire was fighting his counterpart. If he could just get back to Starfire they could team up and maybe have a chance at taking Blackfire down, together.

Of course… leading Blackfire back to Starfire might wind up reuniting her with Red Robin, leading to both Teen Tyrants teaming up against _them_.

He sorely wished he hadn't dropped his communicator.

"I see that you are tiring," Blackfire observed, calmly charging up a starbolt and inspecting it. "Perhaps you might wish to surrender now?"

Robin straightened up at once, taking a stance against her. "Not a chance," he growled, adrenaline quickly returning.

"How typical," she sighed. She aimed towards the broken storefront. "I suppose firing upon unarmed civilians would not convince you?"

He snapped forward quicker than she expected, slamming into her and bringing her to the ground at once. She uttered a grunt of surprise as she found herself pinned beneath him, with his arm digging into her throat.

"Don't… you… _dare,_" he hissed, looking murderous.

"Oooh…" she crooned, her voice low and breathy. "Do the saying of that again," she purred in a whisper.

Robin blinked, taken aback, the harsh expression fading from his face at once and replaced by stunned bewilderment.

Blackfire seized his moment of distraction. She came up, grabbing his arm, twisted him around and slammed him to the street face first.

"Ungh!" he cried as the jolt rattled him straight through his bones, knocking his teeth together. Their positions had neatly reversed. She was the one holding him down now, and she had a death grip on his wrist, which she kept pinned harshly behind him.

The Boy Wonder scrabbled for enough purchase to throw her off his back, his toes and fingernails scraping at the pavement, but he was no match for her Tamaranian strength. He couldn't get up.

"I do not know what Red Robin was talking about when he claimed you were unappealing," she was saying, ignoring his feeble attempts to wriggle out from underneath her. She gave a grin and leaned over him, bending down to speak in his ear. "_I_ find you very attractive," she cooed.

Robin drew in a sharp breath through his teeth. With his cheek pressed to the rough concrete and his body pinned beneath Blackfire's, his arm held in her strong grasp, he felt, for a moment… vulnerable.

He closed his eyes and shook his head, gathering his wits about him. His free hand crept down towards his belt.

"I can't say… the feeling's… mutual…" he strained. His neck was starting to crick from his awkward position.

"Oh but I would make the bet that it is!" Blackfire insisted, straightening up again. "After all, what is there truly different about myself and my counterpart on this end? We are the same person, yes?" she asked.

His hand slipped into a pouch and closed around what he was looking for.

"You are _nothing_ like Star," he growled.

He brought the bird-a-rang up and made a wild stab for her. She shrieked as the blade glanced off her arm, cutting her, and clapped her hand over the wound.

As soon as he was free Robin sprang up and sprinted off, stumbling a little as he dashed. He retrieved his communicator, shoving it into his belt since he didn't have time to switch it on, and ignored the sound of Blackfire's angry Tamaranian threats and curses behind him.

The Boy Wonder watched the landmarks as he ran. He'd seen the green awning from earlier, from when Blackfire had carried him off, and if he'd judged correctly his staff might have fallen right—

_Yes!_ his thoughts crowed in triumph. There it was, on the ground, waiting for him to wield it.

Robin pushed his way past a group of preteen girls walking along the sidewalk.

"Excuse me."

The girls obediently scattered, and then ran off with a chorus of screams as starbolts started peppering the street. But by then Robin had scooped up his staff and was whirling around to face the threat.

Blackfire swooped into view, livid, her hands charged.

"You will pay for that you _zordmorking_—" she snarled.

Robin leapt up and swung, interrupting her with a yell. The blow caught her squarely in the midsection. She tumbled from the air to the pavement, rolling upright. His next swing hit her across the face. She squeaked and went down again, and this time didn't get up. She was struggling to, Robin saw, but her eyes were unfocused and she was uncoordinated and dazed.

He pressed the end of his staff very lightly to her throat, kneeling and pinning one of her wrists beneath his steel-plated boot

"Stay down," he warned her.

She could easily have used her eyebeams on him in that moment, but she didn't, merely stared up at him a while before relaxing and laying her head down impassively. "Very well, you have won," she conceded casually. Pillowing her head on her other arm she added, "You may proceed to ravish me now."

Robin nearly choked. "What—that's—I'm not going to ravish you!" he yelled.

"How boring," she sighed. "That is my favorite part of the sparring." Her eyes beginning to glow she said, "You have given me a most glorious fight nonetheless. I thank you, Robin, but now I must insist you let me leave."

He pressed his staff a little harder into her windpipe. She gasped and her eyes snapped back to normal.

"We're not finished here," Robin said, eyes narrowed. "Where are the other—"

He didn't get to finish.

There was a crackle and a discharge of energy and then the next moment a hole opened up across the street, a ring of sparking crimson that widened suddenly from nothing. It was being controlled by a cloaked, pink-haired girl with raised, red-matter surrounded hands. She lowered her arms as she stepped over the threshold of the ring.

And then the rest of the Teen Tyrants came through behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bwah-ha-ha! Get used to the cliffhangers folks. I told you before, it's all ahead full from here.


	7. Convergence

Robin stared, in an astonished stupor, as Arsenal, Tempest, and what could only be Cyborg's evil counterpart stepped through Red Raven's portal and stood beside her, all of them at once familiar and yet twisted in their likeness to his friends.

Cyber-Vile lowered a device in his hands with a long antenna, raised an arm and studied the readouts on his screen.

"Interesting," he commented. "There appears to be some spatial displacement between the portal opening on this end and ours, in addition to the temporal displacement."

Red Raven ignored Cyber-Vile's technobabble, her eyes hard, her scowl chilling. She lowered her arms and the ring of energy slipped closed behind them. Now that she was here, within reach of her wayward teammates, and could sense their presence with her powers, her control was fraying, slipping away from her. Her rage, which had been bubbling manageably under the surface for a while, rose up again, threatening to choke her.

Her eyes scanned the scene before her quickly. When they lit upon Robin, crouched over a prone and helpless Blackfire and pinning her down with his staff to her throat, they flashed red instantly.

Her anger spiked.

"_Get the hell away from her!"_ she shouted, a terrible echo resonating in her voice.

She took a step and lashed out with her hand, and a great crimson claw burst forth and stretched across the distance to slam into Robin, shove him backwards off Blackfire and close its harsh iron fingers around his throat.

Robin gasped and then found himself unable to draw another breath as Red Raven's projection yanked him up off the ground and held him there, dangling. The demoness squeezed her hand and the talons constricted, cutting off his windpipe. Robin struggled for air.

"Blackfire!"

Tempest and Arsenal were dashing forward now. Each of them took hold of one of Blackfire's arms and pulled her away and to her feet. "Are you all right?" Arsenal asked worriedly, brushing off her clothes.

"I am _fine,_" Blackfire grumbled, looking surly, even as she gently massaged her neck. She shrugged off their hands irritably. "I do not require your assistance."

Arsenal crossed his arms. "Well _excuse me_ for caring about your well-being, Princess_._"

Robin choked, his legs kicking, his hands grasping desperately, uselessly, at the suffocating grip around his throat. His lungs were starting to burn from the lack of oxygen.

Blackfire glanced towards him in dismay, then floated towards the demoness.

"Red Raven, stop! You are killing him!" she cried.

Red Raven's eyes blazed with fury. _"Good."_ Blackfire flinched away from her. There was no reasoning with her now. A torrent of negative emotions—rage and hate and loathing and anger—were rushing around in a fury inside her head, blinding her with wrath. At that moment she didn't notice any of the other Tyrants, didn't even care that it wasn't her Robin she was strangling. She just wanted to _squeeze _him until there was no more life left in his miserable pathetic body.

"_Think you can threaten my friends?"_ she hissed, the echo in her voice amplifying it to a horrible rasp. Her fingers tightened even further. _"Think again. You're nothing. A worm. A speck. I could kill you on a whim, right now. And believe me,"_ she said, _"I'm going to… and I'm going to __**enjoy**__ it."_

Robin could only make a strained gasp in reply. His lungs screamed out for air. His vision was starting to go fuzzy. His fingers pulled weakly at the bands of tight crimson energy locked around his throat, but he couldn't slacken their crushing grip even a little. Red Raven was serious. She was going to kill him. He was going to—

A tunnel of blue sonic energy streaked out from behind him and hit Red Raven squarely in the chest, knocking her back. The claw projection vanished as she skidded away.

Robin dropped to the ground and then to his knees, inhaling a large dizzying gulp of precious air. He coughed, his hand on his throat, as he slowly regained breath. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Raven kneeling beside him.

"You all right?" she asked in concern.

"Yeah…" he strained, his voice hoarse.

Raven extended her hand and helped him up. Beast Boy and Cyborg already stood next to him, tensed for battle and staring across the way towards the Teen Tyrants. Tempest and Cyber-Vile were rushing back to help Red Raven. Arsenal had whipped out his crossbow and pointed it towards them.

"Just who I was itching to see." Arsenal's eyes hardened into a glare as they came to rest on Beast Boy. "You owe me a pelt you little snotstain," he snarled.

"Why don't you come over here and get it?" the changeling challenged, curling one of his hands into a fist.

"These are the rest of our heroic counterparts?" Blackfire said, raising an unenthusiastic eyebrow. She put a hand on her hip, not even bothering to charge her starbolts. "They are not very impressive," she sniffed.

"Can't say I'm too floored to see you either," Cyborg growled back, keeping his sonic cannon trained on Red Raven. His own counterpart currently had hold of the demoness's arm and was helping her to her feet.

"Observation: There are more two life-forms approaching," Cyber-Vile told her emotionlessly.

"I know. I can sense them," she replied. Her eyes were back to normal for now but considering who was coming, that might not last long. Already she could feel a burning annoyance mounting.

She shot a venomous look across the way towards the Robin of the Titans, still recovering his breath and under the watchful eye of her purple-haired double—who mirrored and returned the unfriendly look.

Red Raven hissed, "You're just _lucky_ your little friends are here you—"

There was a massive starbolt blast from one street over.

The shockwave rocked several of them off their feet. Beast Boy yelped and morphed into a rabbit mid-terrified jump and Robin stumbled back into Raven, cracking his head against her jaw, painfully. The explosion plumed up high into the air and rained down flaming debris. Red Raven raised a shield over her and Cyber-Vile's heads as the rest of the Tyrants scattered to avoid the fiery missiles.

After the blast came the sound of a rapid-fire peppering of starbolts, following close on the heels of Red Robin as he came barreling out of a side street. One of them caught him squarely in the back.

"OW!" Red Robin yelled as he hit the pavement hard and rolled. He got to his feet, cursing loudly. "Son of a—!"

"Hello, Red Robin," Red Raven said icily, as she lowered her shield.

Red Robin's eyes widened behind his mask and his throat made a strained, strangled wheezing sound as he beheld the scene before him.

"Raven!" he managed to squeak, his voice shaky and at a decidedly unmasculine pitch. He coughed nervously. Regaining some control of himself he straightened. "I—uh… didn't expect you here," he added in a low mutter.

The demoness was unamused.

"_What_ are you _doing_ in this dimension?" she demanded, growling the words through her teeth and stalking a few steps towards him.

Red Robin scowled and crossed his arms. "None of _your_ business," he shot back hotly.

"Oh great," groaned Arsenal as he emerged from his shelter. "There they go again."

"Just what we all needed," sighed Tempest in commiseration as he came out from behind a car.

Across the street Raven staggered to her feet, rubbing her jaw gingerly. Beast Boy skittered up to her shoulder in squirrel form as she dropped her arm and watched the exchange between her counterpart and Red Robin in rising perplexion. Robin eyes were on the confrontation as well, his hand massaging the bump on the back of his head where he'd banged into Raven.

"Oh, so it's not my business that you _ditched_ us, stole my mirror, abused Cyber-Vile's unstable experimental technology and came here…" Red Raven side-eyed Blackfire, who was standing close at hand. "…with Blackfire…" she trailed, a suspicious note in her voice.

Red Robin straightened another fraction. "Is that a hint of jealousy?" he sneered. Uncrossing his arms he chided, "C'mon Raven, we both know I was only with you for the occasional good f—"

"AZAR!" cried Raven, who did _not_ need or want to know about her intimate dalliances with her leader, alternate universe though it may be. She stared bug-eyed at the two Tyrants.

Red Raven wasn't bothered by Red Robin's frank and vulgar reference. She held up her hand, looking at her fingernails impassively. "You should know… I've been sleeping with Changeling," she told him casually.

Now it was Red Robin's turn to go bug-eyed.

"_Changeling?"_ he sputtered. "That vicious little green maggot that hangs around the dumpsters? Who drools all after you like a horse in heat?"

The demoness smirked as she looked up at him. "What of it, Boy Blunder?" she challenged.

For a moment the Tyrant was at a loss, but then his shoulders relaxed and his posture turned casual. "That's cute, Rae," he told her genuinely. "It's like you found a boy toy and a pet at the same time." He sent his own smirk her way. "I think you two make an _adorable_ couple," he gushed.

"He's a much better lay than you anyway!" Red Raven snapped.

Beast Boy morphed back into human form, hopping down off Raven's shoulder and looking very confused. "What's going on?" he asked.

Cyborg was scratching his head as looked back and forth between the Tyrants. "I think Red Robin and Red Raven just broke up."

Beast Boy absorbed that a moment.

"…They were dating?" he said, befuddled.

"In the loosest sense of the word, maybe," Raven muttered from behind her fingers, as her face was currently buried in her hands in embarrassment.

"I think I hit my head harder than I'd thought," Robin commented, staring across the street at the Tyrants.

Blackfire merely rolled her eyes at the whole exchange. "Must you two behave this way?" she asked, exasperated. "It is so… _petty._"

"_You_ stay out of this, Little Miss Innocent," Red Raven barked, rounding on the Tamaranian Tyrant and jabbing a finger in her direction. "Don't think I don't know you were completely complicit in the whole stealing-my-mirror thing."

"All right," Cyborg interrupted, stepping up and raising his cannon again. "If y'all are finished with your little soap opera, I think it's time for you to leave." He took aim at Red Raven.

Tempest stepped in-between, his hand and hook both up.

"Easy, Big Guy. We don't really have to fight."

"Like hell we don't," Cyborg growled.

"My friends!" came Starfire's voice suddenly. The princess emerged at the mouth of the same alleyway Red Robin had come through. "I am so glad to have found you all at las—"

She cut herself off upon discovering the scene before her and charged her starbolts in a flash.

As if some switch had been pulled, the Tyrants and the Titans all went on alert and squared off. Blackfire, Arsenal, and Tempest whirled to face Starfire. Red Robin and Red Raven dropped their quarrel and turned as one towards Cyborg, Raven, and Robin, who raised their hands and weapons. Beast Boy turned into a wolf, pawed the ground and started circling around the side, edging towards Starfire, beady eyes trained on Arsenal. The archer caught him in the corner of his eye and whipped his crossbow to aim at him, and Beast Boy froze with a low growl, hissing softly.

Only Cyber-Vile did not move, just inclined his head to the side a bit, internal processors taking stock of the heightened tensions.

For a long while, nobody moved.

Robin's eyes darted from Tyrant to Tyrant, sizing them up. _Six of them, five of us,_ he thought. _We could take them for a while, four of us took them okay the last time we fought, but if Red Raven cuts loose we're in trouble. _Red Raven had put a swift end to their last battle with the Tyrants; it was only by the timely intervention of the Brotherhood of Justice that they'd managed to escape.

_We didn't have Raven with us then,_ Robin thought. She'd stayed behind, holding open the portal. Maybe her presence this time would tip the scales in their favor.

He leaned over towards her, not taking his eyes off the Tyrants.

"Think you can keep your double occupied?" he whispered.

Raven gave a small nod. "I think so," she whispered back. "She's powerful, but she's unfocused. She doesn't have enough control over her powers."

"And you have too much control," Red Raven cut in, overhearing their exchange. "Can you even breathe properly under those layers of repressed emotion?" she taunted.

Raven's mouth set into a thin, angry line. "Why don't you just go home?" she growled at her double. "You'll be doing us a favor."

"Really?" asked Red Raven coolly, expression unreadable. "And what exactly is going to stop me from leveling you and your miserable little cheerful silver city to ground instead of doing that?" The scarlet energy around her hands crackled and popped ominously.

The Titans tensed and drew their half-circle closer around the Tyrants. Blackfire and Red Robin exchanged a nervous glance. They hadn't intended for things to go this far when they'd come to this reality. They'd just wanted to cause a little mayhem and chaos, throw a wrench into the lives of their heroic counterparts, and then make a clean and easy getaway.

The two groups stared each other down. There was no movement save the flickering of their eyes around the area. The silence grew so thick around them you could cut it with a knife.

Red Raven mulled over her options. One part of her wanted nothing more than to just leave this reality, drag her runaway teammates back home by their ears and make sure they knew _never_ to do this kind of thing again. But another part of her was appraising the shining silver city around them, so peaceful, so safe, the minds of the people in it so unassuming and unafraid. The lack of fear and terror was almost sickening. Back home the fear was an ever-present aura in the air, something she could almost drink in with her mind. She practically breathed the constant fright of the citizens and her empathic senses were eased and comforted by its presence. Here though, here they had not yet learned to fear her.

The thought of all those happy minds just waiting for her to inflict demonic horrors upon their defenseless innocent psyches was greatly tempting… and she also looked with envious eyes at the heavy emerald necklace around Blackfire's neck. The glimmering gemstones taunted her, stirring up her greed until all she could think about were jewels and paintings and ancient tomes and countless priceless artifacts.

Maybe they wouldn't leave just yet.

Red Raven let herself smirk, watching the apprehensive reaction of Raven to the shift of her emotions. Her other self could already sense what she was thinking.

Good.

She raised her chin.

"Cyber-Vile, juice me up," she called.

Cyber-Vile raised his electromagnetic generator device, extending the antenna and reaching to press a button—

Starfire acted first, starbolting the device out of his hands. It skidded across the street.

The tension between the two groups snapped like a string.

Tempest blasted Starfire out of the air with a jet of water from a nearby fire hydrant. She yelped as she was flung back into the alley.

Robin charged forward as if shot like an arrow from a bow, aiming for Tempest, but Red Robin intercepted him and their staffs clashed with a metallic ring.

Beast Boy took advantage of the initial distraction and pounced on Arsenal. The archer instinctively squeezed the trigger of his crossbow but the shot went wild, hitting Blackfire instead. She gave an "Eeep!" before crashing through an upper story window.

Red Raven brought her powers to bear against Cyborg, blasting a wave of dark matter from her hands. He couldn't evade it in time; he took a step back and raised his arm to shield his face.

A wall of black energy sprang up in front of him and the red wave crashed against it, losing its form and vanishing. Raven narrowed her eyes, grabbing up a metal barrel trash can with her powers and hurling it at her double. Red Raven's eyes widened and she took to the air to avoid getting hit. Raven was after her in a second, already lifting up cars and bits of debris to throw at her. The two empaths disappeared down the street and were soon lost to sight.

Cyborg raised his cannon but he didn't know which way to shoot. Robin and Red Robin were already moving off down a side street, in too close quarters for him to get off a good shot. Tempest had vanished after Starfire. And Beast Boy seemed to have Arsenal pinned down pretty well.

That left Cyber-Vile, but the other half-robot didn't seem to be moving, or indeed having any reaction at all to the chaos around him. Cyborg's eyes flicked down to where the electromagnetic generator had come to a rest. He had a suspicion he knew what the device was for. He risked it and dove to snatch it up.

He was lucky he was still moving when he grabbed it, for the only warning he had was a couple of quick clicking sounds before a sonic beam blasted into the wall next to his ear. Cyborg somersaulted back to his feet, the device clutched tight in his hands, adrenaline spiking. He hadn't even seen Cyber-Vile _move._

The other half-robot lowered his sonic cannon impassively. "Warning: It would be in your best interests to surrender that device back to me."

"Not a chance," Cyborg growled.

Cyber-Vile started to raise his cannon but Cyborg held up the generator, which gave the Tyrant pause as he stopped to analyze his counterpart's motives.

Cyborg gave a self-satisfied smile. "I'm guessing y'all aren't gonna leave without this," he said, waving the generator teasingly. "Maybe I should hang onto it." There was a hook on the device's casing that he promptly clipped to his arm.

If it was possible for Cyber-Vile to glare, that would be the expression his vacant face held now. Cyborg saw just a ghost of irritation and hardened eyes, and there was an inflection of annoyance in the Tyrant's mechanical voice as he said, "Return the device. I will not warn you again."

"Come and take it, Sparky," Cyborg challenged.

Cyber-Vile went rigid.

"Diplomatic measures failed. Lethal force: Authorized," he recited in an eerie drone. "Weaponized mode: Activated."

His cybernetic eye and the lines of circuitry on him began glowing red. The next instant he was barreling towards Cyborg.

"Oh _hell,_" Cyborg managed to groan before his counterpart body-slammed him through the glass doors of a building. Cyborg heard shrieks from a cluster of civilians already huddled in the far corner, who'd been watching the stand-off outside nervously. He slid several yards across the linoleum floor before finally coming to a rest.

He sat up. Cyber-Vile was already stalking towards him, multiple compartments opening up along his arms to reveal an assortment of mini rocket-launchers. Cyborg took a quick x-ray scan with his robot eye to find the insides of his counterpart bristling with other weapons.

_Great. Evil Me had some serious upgrades and is now a walking arms factory. Would have been nice to know that _ _ **before** _ _ I taunted him._

Cyborg raised himself into a crouch.

"Y'all might want to clear out," he told the civilians. "This could get messy."

-TT-

With Cyber-Vile following Cyborg into the building, that left only Arsenal and Beast Boy still in the street, tussling and rolling on the ground. Beast Boy snapped and bit at the archer, looking almost like he was trying to gnaw Arsenal's face off, but really, he was just trying to get the stupid crossbow away from him.

Arsenal tried to aim said crossbow at his head with one hand, while the other pushed away the changeling's snapping, growling maw. Beast Boy finally managed, with a quick jerk of his head, to knock the bow out of Arsenal's grip.

It clattered a couple feet away.

Arsenal grabbed Beast Boy's muzzle with both hands and twisted, causing the green wolf to yelp in pain. They rolled over each other, Arsenal scrambling out from underneath the shape-shifter and making a desperate reach for his weapon.

Beast Boy leapt onto his back. It slowed the archer down a little bit but not enough, so the changeling quickly morphed into something heavier.

Namely, a walrus.

The Teen Tyrant grimaced as several dozen pounds of blubber weighed him down, his fingers inches from his bow but unable to reach any further.

"Come on..." he groaned breathlessly. "That's… not fair…"

From the window above, Blackfire floated out, looking annoyed and more than a little pissed. "Your aim requires improvement, Arsenal," she said cuttingly.

"Shut up and shoot this idiot off me!" Arsenal snapped.

Blackfire sighed and fired a starbolt into Beast Boy's rump.

The walrus gave a loud bellow that changed into a shrill squeal halfway through as Beast Boy resumed human form and clapped both hands over his injured rear, dancing in place. Though the blubber had absorbed and cushioned a lot of the blast, it still stung like hell.

"Ow! Ow ow ow ow!" he squeaked, doing his best now to dodge the starbolt volley being flung at him. One popped on the pavement near his ankles, nearly knocking him off his feet. He managed to tilt himself back into balance, only to be forced to dive for cover as Arsenal shot an explosive-tipped arrow at him.

_BANG!_

Beast Boy stumbled to his feet, dazed by the blast, and was an easy target for Arsenal's next explosive arrow, which sent him flying back into the building across the street. The wind was knocked out of him and he was on his hands and knees, struggling for breath for a moment.

Arsenal smirked in satisfaction. "Thanks," he called back to Blackfire, only to look over his shoulder and find her flying off, down the alley after Tempest and Starfire. "Hey, where are you going?" he demanded angrily.

"To find a more exciting battle," she replied, not even bothering to look back at him.

The archer gaped incredulously at her receding form. But she was gone before he could protest.

He scowled. "Bitch," he muttered under his breath.

Then he was howling in pain as a newly recovered Beast Boy morphed into a velociraptor and pointedly sank his teeth into his arm.

-TT-

Flurries of starbolts and water bombs whizzed through the air between them. Starfire kept a steady barrage up as the intensity of Tempest's assault drove her back. Tendrils of water lashed out at her. Brick crumbled and pipes burst from the walls and split open as Tempest passed by, pulling the water and the plumbing forcibly out with his powers. He seemed to be finding every water line there was—and even a few sewer lines. Starfire tried not to let the stench overpower her as she floated away, leaning back and letting a thrashing snake of foul-smelling water pass above her head.

She still felt the need to press her hand over her mouth and nose. "Ugh!" she groaned.

No time to dwell on it. Tempest was swirling the contents of several broken, leaking pipes together into a whirlwind that rose beneath his feet and propelled him towards her.

Starfire's eyes blazed. She swooped in to meet him head on. Her hands met his chest, the breath was knocked out of him with the force of her impact, and she carried him all the way down to ground level and slammed him into the alley wall.

He grunted, dazed a moment. He raised his hand and found a couple more pipes in the wall behind, which yanked themselves out to spray twin jets of water at her. Starfire leapt back, drifting out of range.

Tempest came at her with his hook. Starfire saw the flash of metal as he struck, and ducked out of the way. She soared up out of range. Tempest followed on her heels, drawing a small wave from all the leaking pipes that he rode the crest of as he pursued.

Starfire glanced back, then peered ahead anxiously as she poured on the speed. She headed for the old warehouse district. There were fewer buildings with working plumbing there. If she could just get to a place where the Tyrant would have less water to summon, she could put him on the defensive easily.

There was a sudden creak of metal above her. Starfire looked up, startled, her eyes widening, coming to a dead halt as a huge water tower perched on the roof leaned over the edge and then burst open, sending a torrent of water straight down on top of her. She didn't even have time to gasp before she found herself flat on her back on the ground, soaking wet and desperately coughing for air.

Tempest's wave rolled over her then, tossing her up in the frothing current. Starfire flailed about as the water pushed her this way and that, dizzy and unsure which way the surface was.

The water subsided around her, depositing her back down on the ground, face down, and she sputtered, choking out the water that had tried to force its way down her throat. A harsh gloved hand grabbed her painfully by the hair and yanked her head up. Starfire gasped in pain and then felt the point of Tempest's hook come to rest against her face.

"Give up?" the Tryant mocked. Tempest gave a malicious grin as he drew his hook very lightly up Starfire's cheek, relishing the way she shivered. "I'd hate to have to carve up that pretty face of yours," he purred.

Starfire reached up and grabbed his hook, yanking it away from her face, then planted an arm in his gut. Tempest grunted and doubled over, letting go of her hair. Starfire released his hook and then used that hand to starbolt him in the chest. He went flying. Starfire rose quickly to her feet and floated up, already prepping another starbolt. She raised her arm to fling it.

Something fast-moving slammed her from behind. Starfire yelped as she was carried through the alley wall, through a second wall, and then finally smashed into a third, mortar, wood, and plaster crumbling around her.

Blackfire smiled triumphantly and drifted back outside. Casually clasping her arms behind her back she floated over her Tryant comrade.

"Do you require assistance, Tempest?" she asked sweetly, voice teasing.

Tempest shot a glare at her and jabbed his hook in her direction irritably.

"Butt out, Blackfire. I don't need your—"

An eyebeam blast streaked out of the hole in the alley wall and hit him dead on. Tempest disappeared down a side street with a shout.

"Yes, I can clearly see that," Blackfire commented flatly.

Starfire emerged, flinging starbolts up at her double. Blackfire backed up in the air, swerving to avoid the volley. Starfire kept after her. Both Tamaranians rose above the building line, hovering over the rooftops. Starfire paused a moment to catch her breath. Her Tyrant counterpart looked unphased; she hadn't even charged her starbolts.

"Come now, 'sister', what reason is there for you to hold back?" Blackfire taunted. "I know you are capable of much more." The Tryant sneered at her. "Is it perhaps that your heroic alignment in this universe causes you to be, as they say, 'the suck'?"

Starfire's eyes hardened. "If you are so eager to see what I am capable of as a hero," she said chillingly, "then I shall _gladly_ show you."

All-serious now, her eyebeams lit and pegged Blackfire in the stomach, knocking the Tryant back. Blackfire jerked her head up in time to see the Teen Titan swooping in at her.

_BAM!_

Blackfire's head snapped back with the force of Starfire's blow, and she dropped several meters from the air.

She barely had enough time to get her arms up to block Starfire's next punch, which knocked her back again. Starfire brought both hands forward and charged a large starbolt that blasted Blackfire and sent her whizzing like a pool ball. The Tyrant somersaulted dizzyingly in the air a moment, righted herself, and then went on the offensive, hurling starbolts.

Starfire zigzagged around them as she zoomed back into close quarters, swinging at Blackfire's head. Blackfire ducked and spun a kick that hit Starfire in the ribs. Starfire reeled back and recovered. Blackfire went for a jab to the redhead's throat, but she managed to knock her arm away and kick her back.

The girls went at each other like this for a full minute. Punch. Kick. Starbolt. Dodge. Swing. Block. Blackfire grabbed Starfire's arm once and flung the Titan into a cylindrical metal chimney, which dented as her back slammed into it.

Starfire clenched her teeth, feeling the shock and pain course through her body. She recovered quickly. As Blackfire swooped in towards her she zipped to the side, catching the Tyrant by her leg. With a yell and a great heave she swung the other girl around and then let go and watched her opponent sail straight for a face-plant into a billboard on the neighboring roof.

Blackfire peeled herself away from the board, covering her mouth. Her teeth rang with pain and there was blood in her mouth. She spat it out on the roof and then whirled to face Starfire.

To her surprise, there was no one there.

The raven-haired Tamaranian looked about in confusion. Where had she—?

She found out a moment later, as with a loud rending and creaking of metal, Starfire pulled the billboard off its metal hinges and held it high above her head. Blackfire's eyes widened as the shadow of it fell across her.

_CRUNCH!_

Starfire slammed it down on top of Blackfire's head. She drifted a couple feet back, watching the wreckage for movement, starbolts at the ready. The blow would have stunned her opponent at the very least, knocked her out at best. It wouldn't keep her down for long.

She tensed as she saw a dazed Blackfire poke her head out from beneath the billboard, and lifted her fists.

A large water whip lashed out from somewhere to her right and smacked her from the air.

The Titan yelped as she fell. Her knees and hands scraped the ground and she rolled a few meters before coming to a stop. She shot up, rigid, straining her eyes down the street for a sign of her attacker.

There was Tempest, running towards her with a maelstrom of swirling water dragging behind him. And Blackfire had recovered now and was flying up from the wreckage of the billboard, angling down towards her.

Starfire set her face firmly, her eyes and hands glowing, already forming a massive wall of starbolt energy, and prepared to meet their charge.


	8. Contrast

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Brace yourselves peeps, this is a loooong chapter. About nine thousand words.
> 
> The battle continues! I agonized over the first couple sections for like forever because uuuuggggh action scenes, why can't they write themselves? So much planning... But anyway, once I got to the Raven section, it all came strangely quickly to me.
> 
> I ridiculously love this chapter. So much clashing of worldviews! I'll pipe down now so as not to spoil you but know that this was probably my favorite chapter to write so far. Enjoy my dear readers!

Their staffs clanged against each other with a metallic ring, and both of them jockeyed for leverage, trying to push the other back.

In the end it was Robin who managed to win that round. He gave a great shove that sent his counterpart reeling back, and followed it up with a spin kick towards Red Robin's head.

Red Robin ducked it, naturally, and countered with a jab of his staff to Robin's side.

The hit wasn't bad, but Robin still grunted and flinched, and retreated a few paces to check for broken ribs. Red Robin came at him again with a low swing, and Robin hopped back out of range and batted his opponent away. Their staffs banged together a few more times, the sharp sound echoing off the faces of the buildings.

Robin shifted his footing and managed to get his ankle behind Red Robin's. With a quick sweep he dropped the other boy flat on his back. Red Robin brought his staff up to defend but the Titan struck it out of his hands.

Nonplussed, Red Robin smirked, and put his palms flat for a handspring. He pushed up, catching Robin solidly in the chin with his boot, and made a round-off back onto his feet.

Shaking off the pain in his jaw, Robin ran at him and struck. Red Robin sidestepped the first couple of swings and then grabbed the staff at the middle and tried to wrest it from Robin's hands. Robin hung on to it and a tug-of-war began, both sides pushing and pulling this way and that. A wrench to the side had Robin stumbling around, but he regained solid footing and shoved forward.

Red Robin leaned his head back slightly.

_BANG!_

Before Robin knew it, the other boy's head cracked against his, making stars explode in front of his vision. Robin dropped his staff and stumbled back, giving a sharp groan, his hands going to his forehead. He caught sight of Red Robin striking at him, and had enough time to raise his arm to block before he was knocked over.

He rolled upright quickly.

Red Robin tossed the staff away casually, putting up his chops, still with that cocky, self-satisfied smirk on his face. Robin brought his hands up into ready defensive position and both combatants slowly circled each other.

Robin let his double make the first move. As the Teen Tyrant leapt forward and aimed a flurry of punches at him, Robin nonchalantly ducked and crossed his arms in front of his face to ward off each blow. Breaking his guard he smacked away Red Robin's oncoming fist and aimed a blow for the Tyrant's face. Red Robin yanked himself back out of the way, feeling the rush of air as the strike sailed past him.

Robin let his momentum carry him around for a high kick that Red Robin blocked. Still moving, the Titan slashed another kick towards the Tyrant's midsection.

Blocked.

Pressing forward, Robin attempted an uppercut to his opponent's face.

Blocked.

Now for a hit to the Tyrant's knee.

Blocked again.

Growing frustrated, Robin dropped to his haunches and swept his leg under Red Robin's feet. That had the satisfying effect of tripping the Tyrant up, but not for long. A swift roll and a back-flip and he was back on his feet.

Robin disengaged, realizing he'd only tire himself out if he kept up his attack, and stepped back to put some distance between them.

The Teen Tyrant's smirk widened.

"My turn," he said.

He came in hard and fast, his strikes powerful and rapid as Robin defended. He almost made contact a couple times. But as before, once Robin adjusted to his opponent's speed and strength, all the hits were blocked and not a one made it through.

There were definitely some advantages and disadvantages to knowing his opponent's exact moves and methods so intimately.

Robin studied his double's fighting style as they traded blows back and forth. Red Robin was clearly familiar with all the same forms he knew, but his movements were more aggressive, harsher. They had an edge to them that Robin's didn't. Red Robin lacked some of his restraint, which made him all the more potentially dangerous. Though, Robin admitted, it was a bit of a toss-up right now as to which of the two boys would win. They were evenly matched. They could practically read what the other would do telepathically, before he did it. Robin stayed mainly on the defensive, hoping to wear the Tyrant down. They were both starting to slip up, and let a couple blows through.

A sudden hit to his diaphragm surprised him. Winded, Robin struggled for breath and was an easy target for Red Robin's next kick. The Boy Wonder was knocked to the pavement, though he was back up soon, albeit slightly more wary now.

_I __**hate**__ it when people do that to me_, he thought to himself, annoyed.

Red Robin was circling him again.

"You don't seriously think you can win, do you?" the Tyrant asked mockingly.

The Boy Wonder's mouth tightened grimly. "Actually, I do," he replied, sweeping forward with a yell. It was partially the truth. Though logically Robin knew his double had a good chance at winning, had the edge in fact, emotionally he wouldn't allow himself to consider the possibility. He would win. Because he _had_ to.

Because failure wasn't an option.

Red Robin caught his punch easily and batted him aside. "Come on," he said, skeptically. "We're the same person remember? Nothing you do will surprise me."

The Titan leader smiled. "The same goes for you. I know everything you know." He emphasized his point by easily countering Red Robin's jab towards his stomach.

There was an eerie gleam in Red Robin's expression.

"Not everything."

He dodged Robin's oncoming sucker punch, stopped the Titan's other fist with his palm. Then in a flash he struck forward with a hard hit to Robin's throat.

"_Kakh__—!_"

Robin choked, tripping backwards dizzily. For several terrifying seconds, he couldn't breathe. His hands grabbed at his neck.

Taking advantage of his distress, Red Robin spun around and smacked him in the head with his steel-plated toe. Pain lanced through his temple and Robin went down hard, still struggling to make his windpipe work again. A harsh, ragged wheeze finally made it down his throat and to his lungs.

Above him, Red Robin came into view. "Or at least, you're not willing to _use_ everything you know," he amended maliciously. His foot came up and caught Robin in the stomach. Robin grunted as he was sent rolling along the ground. "That's why I'm going to win this fight, boy scout," Red Robin continued. "Because I'll do things you _won't_."

He aimed another kick at his downed opponent but Robin jerked up and grabbed his foot. Robin twisted, and Red Robin yelped as he was flung off to the side, flat onto his face.

The Boy Wonder rose to his feet shakily. His counterpart's underhanded tactics unnerved him. Even Slade didn't generally fight that dirty. (Generally. There had been quite a few exceptions.)

Shaking himself, Robin charged his opponent. Red Robin eased to his feet and watched the Titan come, not moving until the very moment that Robin struck. His hand flashed up and caught Robin's fist, a disturbingly familiar move to the Titan. Then he grabbed the Boy Wonder's arm and Robin yelped as he was yanked forward and twisted around. For the second time that day, Robin found his arm wrenched behind his back. He squirmed in the painful hold, but Red Robin had a tight grip on him and wasn't about to let go.

Grimacing in pain and annoyance, Robin craned his neck around, trying to look his opponent in the face. "Slade teach you that?" he hissed.

Red Robin's hands tightened a fraction, pinching him. "Don't _ever_ mention him to me," the Tyrant growled.

Robin just huffed in terse satisfaction. Nice to see that a few things were the same across universes.

"I'll bet he didn't teach you _this!_"

The Boy Wonder dug his feet in and then shoved backward with all his might, overbalancing Red Robin and slamming him into the wall. Red Robin yelped and his grip loosened just enough for Robin to pull forward, twist halfway around, and elbow the Tyrant in the nose.

His hold broke and Robin quickly stumbled away from him. He rubbed his shoulder, massaging some of the feeling back into his muscles. That right arm was going to be really sore the next morning, at this rate.

Red Robin's palms were covering his face, muffling the curses he was spewing. He brought his hands away from holding his nose and found something wet and dark red coating the fingers of his gloves. He laughed, and looked up at Robin, oddly impressed.

"Not bad. Not bad at all. Maybe there's hope for you yet, boy scout," he mused cheerfully, striking another stance.

Robin faced off against him, expression stern. "Don't count on it. I've been down your path once before, crossed the lines you've crossed. And I'm _never_ doing it again," he emphasized.

Red Robin shrugged. "Suit yourself. But it's _way_ more fun on the bad side." The boy grinned as he rushed in for an attack. "Being a hero has too many _rules_ and _responsibilities_." Red Robin punctuated the words with a couple swings at Robin. "No one tells me what to do," he bragged.

Robin let the Teen Tyrant's punches bounce off his outstretched palms, as he stepped back and gave ground. He gave his opponent a smug look. "Except Red Raven," he pointed out.

"Let's not talk about her, okay?" Red Robin dismissed, looking off uncomfortably and avoiding eye contact. Robin chanced a drop kick on him, but Red Robin caught his foot. Nonplussed, the Boy Wonder springboarded off the Tyrant, flipping back in a graceful aerial arc that made his cape flutter behind him. Changing the subject, Red Robin grinned slowly and drawled, "You know… I still can't get over how stupid your outfit is." He nodded his head towards Robin's uniform, even as he circled the other boy, looking for an opening. "Does being a hero automatically drain your ability to make good fashion choices?" he teased.

"This, from the guy with a Mohawk," Robin shot back flatly, unamused.

"Hey, the girls like it," the Teen Tyrant deflected with a shrug. The infuriating smirk returned. "But I doubt they're ever going to be into the walking traffic sign look." Red Robin side-stepped the Boy Wonder as he charged, glancing a strike off the other boy's back. "Why do you even wear that?" he asked, as Robin came about.

"You _know_ why I wear this," Robin said, his voice hard and deadly serious.

Red Robin looked him over skeptically. "It can't be because the colors help you blend into the shadows. You stick out like a sore thumb," he laughed.

Robin swung a half-hearted blow and then stepped back out of range, his tactical mind running up a new course of action. If he could needle Red Robin, get under his skin, get him to react emotionally instead of logically, he might be able to throw the Tyrant off his A-game. And that could tip the scales in his favor. Robin steeled himself.

_If he's going to fight dirty, then so will I_.

"That's the idea," he replied. "Bright colors, for distraction and misdirection. _Circus_ colors."

Red Robin had been preparing to attack but froze up at those words.

Robin continued circling and allowed himself a mean little smirk. "But you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

That provoked the reaction he was looking for.

Anger flashed across Red Robin's face. "Shut up!" He rushed in and threw all his weight into a punch that sailed neatly to Robin's right, as the Titan leaned out of the way.

"Sorry, did I hit a sore spot?" he mocked. While the Tyrant was still off balance, Robin sent a kick to his stomach, further destabilizing him, then grabbed his arm and flipped the other boy over his shoulder, flinging him into the nearest wall. His fists tightened as he came and stood over Red Robin, glaring down. "Maybe now you understand me a little better," he said.

Red Robin wiped away the trail of blood still dripping from his nose, as he got up. "I understand that you're a masochist," he snarked icily. He crossed his arms, giving a cool, even look. "So the uniform's your albatross? That has to hurt, wearing a constant reminder of your _dead parents,_" he stabbed back.

The Boy Wonder thought he'd be prepared for Red Robin to lob back at him, but the jab still hurt. Robin fumed, but he had no one to blame but himself for leading the conversation to this point.

He put his emotions aside, and clenched his fists tighter.

"I'm honoring their memory," he said firmly. "This—" He raised a hand and flicked the hem of his sleeve, indicating his uniform. "—reminds me why I became a hero. Why I'm fighting. I chose this life to protect innocent people from criminals like you!" As he spoke, Robin's voice rose with conviction. "So that no one else has to go through what I did," he finished.

"How noble of you," Red Robin said, rolling his eyes.

His apathy angered Robin. "Better than what _you're_ doing," he snapped, getting up into Red Robin's personal space. "Terrorizing innocent civilians? Stealing? I'm sure Mom and Dad would be thrilled," he said derisively.

Red Robin socked him in the jaw and shoved him away, hard.

Robin almost toppled over, but managed to regain his balance and looked up at his opponent. The Teen Tyrant was quaking with anger, his nails digging into his palms. Murderous rage shot from his eyes.

"Shut the hell up! You have no idea what losing them did to me!" he yelled.

"Oh I don't?" Robin scoffed. "You think I don't know _exactly_ how it feels?!" He was back in Red Robin's face, livid, shouting the words. "At least their deaths taught me something! At least I learned from my grief, turned into something productive, instead of taking it out on everyone and everything else!"

"Well that's great for you," Red Robin replied bitterly. "All _I_ learned from that night is that the world is a dark, unfair place without any justice." His expression soured with the memory. Images from the past flashed before his mind's eye: his parents' lifeless bodies on the ground, their blood on his hands, his mentor grabbing him up by the front of his shirt and growling, _"On your feet, solider."_ He buried the memories. Getting emotional was weak. What was his double trying to prove anyway? That suffering tragedy at so young an age should have galvanized him into a life-long personal never-ending crusade against crime? Yeah right. "People get hurt all the time. It's inevitable. You can't stop it so who cares? It doesn't matter." Red Robin puffed himself up threateningly, glaring at the Teen Titan. "All that matters is making people afraid of you," he growled, "and having the power to hurt them before they hurt you."

"So you turned into exactly the kind of person that killed our parents," Robin said, crossing his arms with a cynical frown. "They'd be so _proud._"

The words were barely out of his mouth before Red Robin tackled him, slamming him to the ground and beating his face with his fists. Hard blows smashed into Robin's skull over and over and Robin yelped, feeling his lip re-split open again and his mouth fill with blood.

"I am _nothing like_ Tony Zucco! You hear me?! _Nothing_ like him!" Red Robin was screaming.

"Keep telling yourself that," Robin rasped, glaring up at him. "Maybe it'll actually make you feel better."

That brought about a fresh round of rage from the Tyrant, who smacked his fist into Robin's chin with a snarl. Robin reached up, grabbing fistfuls of his double's tunic and twisting his body to fling the Tyrant off him. Fingers clawed at skin, yanked at hair, all semblance of grace and civility gone from the fight as the two boys grappled, rolling along the ground. Robin tried to give as good as he got, sometimes on top, sometimes pinned underneath Red Robin as the Tyrant rained punches down on him, but he was getting exhausted.

Red Robin sat heavily on his chest, grabbing a chunk of his hair right at the roots. Robin heard the slice of metal as his double pulled a bird-a-rang out from his belt. The Boy Wonder tugged and pried at the Tyrant's fingers, scrabbling to escape. Red Robin gave an evil smirk as he held the weapon in front of Robin's face, taunting him.

He raised it high—

There came a cat-like growl suddenly from down the street. Both boys started and jerked their heads in that direction in time to see a green cheetah skidding around the corner of a building. An arrow followed hot on its tail, hitting the pavement and blasting open with a glut of foamy slime just short of the cat's ankles as it zipped away just in time and came barreling down the street towards them.

"Beast Boy!" Robin called frantically.

The cheetah raised its head. Upon seeing them, it let out a feral snarl and increased its speed. About twenty feet off the changeling morphed into a bull, lowering his great sharp horns.

"Yipe!" Red Robin squawked, leaping back off of Robin at once and scrambling to run the other way.

Robin rolled up to his feet in relief, and when Beast Boy came charging past him, he put his hand on the changeling's neck and smoothly swung himself up onto the bull's back.

Beast Boy took a deliberate swipe at the fleeing Red Robin with his horns. Fortunately or unfortunately the Tyrant managed to evade the powerful sweep, pulling out his grapple line and shooting it off towards the rooftops. The line yanked him skyward a moment later.

Then from behind came more arrows—sharp ones this time—as Arsenal rounded the corner and took aim at them. Robin hunkered down close to Beast Boy's back as the arrows whizzed over his head. Beast Boy slowed for a turn, lumbering around to face back towards Arsenal. He paused for a moment, pawed the ground with his hoof. Then he gave a loud bellow and charged straight for the archer.

Arsenal just gave a look of satisfaction and took careful aim with his bow.

Robin dug around in his belt for weapons. A couple flash bombs, and a few bird-a-rangs. That was it. Everything else had been used up in the earlier fight with Blackfire. There were a couple tricks he hadn't tried yet, still.

As Arsenal sent the first arrow their way, Robin drew out two of his bird-a-rangs, specialized ones, and clapped them together. Metal locked with metal, the inner mechanism extended a longer blade out from the hilt, forming Robin's little-used bird-a-rang sword. Robin leaned forward over Beast Boy's head and swept the sword to intercept and slice through Arsenal's arrow. Arsenal shot off several more in rapid succession, or at least as rapid as he could with a crossbow. Beast Boy kept his head down and let Robin deal with the arrows, blocking and slashing them from the air, and just kept coming at full speed.

Arsenal got increasingly nervous the closer they got and started backing up as he reloaded and fired. Finally, with the green bull bearing down on him, his eyes widened.

"Oh sh—"

He whirled around to hightail it.

Beast Boy dug in his hooves, taking the last few yards at double pace, and lowered his head and shoulders. Robin hopped up to perch with both feet on the bull's neck. Beast Boy snapped his great head back up, heaving Robin forward into the air. Robin gave a yell and Arsenal looked back, only to have Robin's steel-plated boot connect with his chin. He went down with a pained, _"Ooof!"_ and Robin landed lightly on his feet, sword in one hand.

The bull slid to a halt and resumed human form. Out of breath, Beast Boy watched Arsenal wobble to his hands and knees, spewing curses as he rubbed his jaw. His keen ears picked up on a noise from above and he looked up towards the roof.

"Dude, look out!" he cried in warning to Robin.

The Boy Wonder spun about, striking the explosive disk being thrown at them by Red Robin, glancing it off the blade and away from him and Beast Boy. The disk blasted apart in mid-air and the two Titans flinched and squeezed their eyes shut at the explosion.

Red Robin leapt down from the building, re-entering the fray just as Arsenal rose to his feet and faced them.

Beast Boy backed up close to Robin, facing Red Robin while Robin faced Arsenal.

"Any ideas?" he asked over his shoulder.

Robin's hands tightened on the hilt of his sword. "Just stick close to me," he told the changeling, then he raised his blade and ran at Arsenal with a yell.

Beast Boy clenched his fists, morphing into a bear and lunging with a roar towards Red Robin.

-TT-

Cyborg crashed into a circle-rack of blouses and shirts, and several were pulled from their hangers and flopped down on top of him. Cyborg extricated himself from the mess with some difficulty. It took several tries before he could twist his body the right way for the leverage to get up. He peeled off a woman's spaghetti strap tank that had gotten caught on one of the knobs in his cybernetic joints, and faced his evil counterpart again.

Cyber-Vile advanced slowly, menacingly. His shoulder mounts reloaded, then sent a half-dozen small missiles at Cyborg, who dived behind a perfume display counter for shelter.

The missiles shattered the glass displays, scattering shards everywhere and causing the tight, cowering group of civilians in the corner to give a chorus of screams. Cyborg covered his head with his arms as bits of glass rained down on him. He peeked over the counter, only to duck back down again as Cyber-Vile's sonic cannon shot at his eyes.

Transforming his arm into his own cannon, Cyborg inhaled steadily, then burst from his cover, shooting sonic beams at his opponent. Cyber-Vile took one shot to the shoulder and staggered back briefly, but managed to recover and dodge the rest of the beams. Cyborg came around the display counter and bulldozed into him with a yell. The two punched each other back and forth a couple times, and then Cyber-Vile grabbed Cyborg's arm and flung him off into the swimsuit section, where the Teen Titan smashed into yet another sales rack.

Cyborg groaned, pulling himself up. Seeing that Cyber-Vile was charging his cannon on some kind of laser setting (_When'd he find time to install __**that?**__, _he wondered), he turned tail and ducked into the ladies fitting room. The lasers punched the door frame, splintering the wood.

Growling, Cyborg grabbed hold of one of the changing stall doors and yanked it off its hinges for a suitable weapon.

The poor half-dressed young woman who'd been hiding in there gave a loud shrill shriek and tried to cover herself with her arms.

"Whoops. Sorry ma'am," Cyborg apologized, carefully putting the door back on its hinges. He moved down a stall, checking his infrared first to make sure it was vacant, and wrenched that door off instead.

He charged around the corner into the line of fire. The lasers punctured the wood, ripping holes in it, and Cyborg had to do some creative twisting to avoid getting hit. He frowned at the door, now riddled with openings, then raised it above his head and made to club Cyber-Vile with it.

Cyber-Vile punched upwards before it landed on his head and cracked it in two. The pieces fell uselessly to the tile floor and Cyber-Vile grabbed Cyborg's chin harshly and held him up a moment to dangle before slamming him into a support pillar. Cyborg dropped to his knees heavily, weakened from the blow. He lifted his head blearily, looking up at his double. Cyber-Vile stood over him impassively and raised his sonic cannon.

"I will give you one last chance," the villainous half-robot pronounced in his eerie mechanical monotone. "If you do not surrender the device freely, I will be forced to kill you."

"Yeah, well…" Cyborg said, surreptitiously glancing past Cyber-Vile towards the far corner. A few brave civilians were beginning to creep along the wall, sliding towards the exit and making their escape. Cyber-Vile had ignored their presence the whole fight; hadn't even looked their way once. His programming must have considered them no threat, and chosen instead to single-mindedly focus on the mission to get back the electromagnetic generator. Cyborg was grateful for that, at least. "Too bad I don't plan on dying today," he announced, taking hold of a broken piece of metal rack and swinging it at Cyber-Vile's face.

The other half-robot nonchalantly grabbed the end with his free hand, inches from his cheek, and roundly kicked Cyborg in the chest.

The Teen Titan screeched along the floor several yards until he finally came to a rest, dangerously near the opening for the escalator to the lower floor.

_Well __**that**__ could have gone a lot better,_ he thought, catching hold of the rubber railings to stop himself from sliding any further over the edge. He'd be in for a painful tumble down the stairs if he took another hit.

And Cyber-Vile looked like he was ready to provide it. "It is a futile effort," he said, advancing. "My analytics programming can predict every move you are going to make."

"Predict _this!_" Cyborg growled, raising his foot.

The energy cannon embedded in his boot was already charging. Cyber-Vile's internal processors had only half a second to whir and analyze the weaponry and by then it was too late and the thing had already fired straight into his face.

He clapped a hand over his face and reeled back with a pained cry that, filtered through his metal voice box, sounded absolutely inhuman.

Cyborg used the distraction to haul himself up and move away from the stairwell. Once he was solidly on his feet again he wasted no time and hurled himself forward to attack. His fist reeled back and in four long strides he'd reached Cyber-Vile and socked him in the chest.

One punch to the face, one to the stomach, and then he couldn't land any more because his opening was up and Cyber-Vile had recovered. The other half-robot stopped his fist, picked him bodily up like a sumo wrestler, and sent him hurtling into the broken perfume display. The glass and metal scattered around him.

Cyborg groaned, tilting his head up and blinking through dazed eyes. Cyber-Vile's glare was chilling as he lowered his hands and approached. His cybernetic eye was damaged, and it popped and sparked, a pair of loose wires desperately hanging onto the red filter which dangled down the half-robot's metal cheek.

_Damn. Three thousand watt beam to the face and he's __**still**__ coming_, Cyborg thought. He was running out of options and ideas on how to bring his double down, or at the very least incapacitate the villain long enough so that he could escape. Short of hitting him with all fifty-thousand watts of his power cell, which would hurt himself almost more than Cyber-Vile, he didn't really know what else he could do.

His eyes flicked down towards the electromagnetic generator. Unless…

He hunkered down, unclipping the device from his arm and dialing it to charge rapidly. If it could produce electromagnetic fields like he thought, to boost Red Raven's powers so that she could easily open portals between realities, he suspected a bit of tweaking could make the device send out a full-blown pulse. An EMP would still affect his own circuitry almost as much as Cyber-Vile's, but it was marginally less dangerous than unloading his full power cell on the villain, and it was illogical and absurd enough that Cyber-Vile's programming might not see it coming.

If only he had more _time…_

Cyber-Vile was almost on him. Cyborg grit his teeth, prying off a section of the casing and shoving one of his finger tools into the internal circuitry to try and bypass the safety measures and make the coils spin faster.

A small child was suddenly bravely whacking at Cyber-Vile's arm with an umbrella.

"Leave Cyborg alone you big meanie!" he cried.

"Peter!" his mother cried in horror from where she stood on the sidelines.

Cyber-Vile slowly turned his head to analyze the sudden distraction and annoyance. His dangling eye flickered with the readout that would normally be beaming straight to his optical circuits, sizing up the child and calculating his threat risk. His analytics concluded it was minimal.

The half-robot neatly caught the umbrella as it came down for another useless swat. The child gasped, letting go of the handle at once and scurrying back to the safe embrace of his mother, who scooped him up into her arms and hastily ran for the door.

Cyber-Vile let them go. They were of no importance.

He tossed the umbrella off. Cyborg standing up caught his attention and he turned.

"You want this so badly?" Cyborg was saying, holding up the electromagnetic generator. "Catch!"

The Titan tossed the device at him. Cyber-Vile's analytics calculated the arc of its descent and moved to intercept, catching the unit neatly in his hands. But there was something wrong. His scanners showed a heightened and exponentially increasing amount of electromagnetism around the generator. His double must have tampered with—

It went off. A wave of electromagnetic energy smacked into his head with all the force of a brick wall, shorting everything out and causing all his circuits to go haywire.

He stumbled backwards with a garbled yell, dropping the generator, as his visual displays flashed rapid-fire warnings and snippets and scattered pieces of diagrams and memory that distorted and glitched with interference. Microchips overloaded with energy, circuits flipped open and closed in sporadic wild patterns, all his electronics felt like they were on fire. Nerve impulses no longer reached his limbs and he had no control of his mechanical body, which jerked and flailed and staggered until he finally fell back onto the floor, twitching, electronics popping and buzzing inside and out.

Cyborg blundered forward, swerving around the perfume display. He'd had enough time to put up a modicum of shielding, but the EM pulse was still wrecking havoc with his electronics, filling his senses with static and sparking and snapping, making his vision go in and out of focus before dissolving into snow. He took a few steps towards his downed opponent to retrieve the generator but his stability motors shorted, making his head spin dizzily and bringing him to his knees. Trusting his human eye now, he made his way across the floor, crawling until he could reach out with his hand and grasp the device.

His inner ear balance stabilized momentarily, allowing him to rise to his feet and stagger towards the back of the department store, where the rear exit was. Sheer will and determination kept him moving forward even when his cybernetic eye blinked out and showed nothing, or flashed glitchy interference across his visual input.

He heard a clatter; he must've knocked down a clothing rack.

There was light up ahead. He moved towards it.

Warmth on his face. It was sunlight. The outside was too bright; it was hurting both his eyes.

Cyborg clipped the generator back onto his arm. It took a couple tries; his limbs were shaking and unsteady.

He closed his eyes and felt his way along now. There was the door. He pushed it open and stumbled out onto the sidewalk. Cars beeping. Wind on his face. He hugged the wall as he made his way. He had to get further away. Who knew how long it would take for Cyber-Vile to reboot and recover.

He opened his eyes momentarily for a peek at his surroundings. He was a block away now. Good but not good enough. He kept going. The light seared into his optical circuits, overloading his brain with sensory information.

He couldn't feel his hands on the wall anymore. His visual displays were showing more static and snow now. His mechanical muscles were screaming, protesting the effort to move them. His brain was buzzed and he could barely think.

Two blocks away now. That would have to do.

Cyborg let himself sink to the pavement, dialing a button in his arm to initiate an emergency shut down. He couldn't fight through the chaos anymore. He needed to turn off for a while, or risk permanent damage to his circuits.

A green text display flashed, **Emergency shutdown in progress**, in the midst of all the diagrams and charts. It was the last thing he saw before everything went black.

-TT-

Raven hurled the streetlight through the air at her opponent. Red Raven brought her hands in front of her, conjuring a knife-like swath of crimson energy that sliced the pole through. The Tyrant smiled and caught the two pieces before they hit the ground, throwing them back at Raven.

The empath flew up in the air to avoid them. They crashed somewhere behind her. Raven didn't turn to look, already sending a blast of dark matter at Red Raven. The Tyrant put up a shield but the force of the beam still sent her sliding backwards in the air. The collision of powers made a great _Crack!_ that resounded like a thunderclap, echoing through the buildings. Red Raven uncurled from her defensive guard, spread her hands and gave a forceful grunt. A pair of cars lifted from the street behind her. She raised them into the air and shoved them forward at Raven.

Raven flew straight towards her, dodging both cars and feeling them whoosh heavily past her, making the very air shudder as they went by. She raised a hand and sent a rapid burst of dark matter darts at the Tyrant.

Red Raven dropped suddenly. Raven had no idea where she went until she sensed a discharge of energy behind her.

Too late to dodge. Raven got the full force of the crackling red energy ball in her back. The pain in her head spiked as she was flung forward. She very nearly lost consciousness.

Hitting the gravel of the rooftop snapped her back to alertness. Raven rolled over in time to see Red Raven dropping a dumpster towards her. The empath let herself fade into her soul self, melting flat into the roof as the dumpster hit and blew apart, scattering trash, shaking the building.

Then she rose up from the wreckage like a phoenix, spreading her raven wings with a screech. The ebony bird-shape resolved into Raven's normal form and the empath stretched out a dark-matter claw. Red Raven gasped as she was snatched from the air mid-dive bomb and flung down to the street, smashed into the roof of a car.

The metal buckled underneath her.

She gathered her energy and then let it explode outwards, breaking Raven's projection into tiny black shards. The shockwave rippled up and down the street, shattering the glass windows of buildings and cars, rolling up the sidewalk, and setting off several alarms.

Raven dropped into view, surveying the damage worriedly. She could only spare a quick glance, for Red Raven had found a parked bus and was already levitating it.

The pink-haired girl smirked devilishly.

"Catch!" she said, hefting the vehicle at the Titan.

Raven put up both hands, glowing with orbs of dark matter. The bus slowed ever so slightly, its front end still descending towards her, threatening to crush her into paste. Raven put more concentration and effort into slowing the bus down, enveloping the outside with her energy, pouring her soul into every nook and cranny of the vehicle in order to have more control over it.

She halted it scant feet above her head. It was too heavy to hold for very long so she let it tilt backwards, and drop to the ground behind her.

_Whump!_ came the heavy impact as it met the pavement.

Her chest heaved, taking deep breaths in and out. Her head panged, throbbing with the empathic headache she'd been suffering all morning. But she shook the distraction off.

"Nice try," she told her double, lifting sharp pieces of debris and making them streak towards Red Raven like deadly darts.

Red Raven yanked a stop sign in front of her with her powers. The shards embedded in the sign, and then she tossed it away nonchalantly. She swept her arm in a diagonal slashing motion and arcs of scarlet energy whipped out from her body, snaking this way and that and carving up the cars between them. Raven had to levitate up and back and twist out of the way and even then didn't fully manage to avoid the lashing ends. She felt the tendrils rip through the hem of her cloak, felt a sting on her arm as one sharp end cut her.

Raven spared a moment to heal herself. Her head protested insistently but soon returned to its normal dull throbbing.

Her opponent was flying off, heading down the street. Raven straightened her body and pursued her. The empath picked up objects to throw at the Tyrant, who turned over on her back and lobbed them back lazily.

"Purple hair. Cute," she commented. Red Raven pillowed her arms behind her head. "Anyone ever tell you you look like a bobble head doll?" she snarked.

Raven hefted a mailbox, which missed Red Raven by a foot. "And you look like Jinx's evil half-sister," she drolled back.

"Who?" Red Raven asked innocently, checking her nails again.

Raven smirked. "Watch out," she warned.

The Teen Tyrant's pink catlike eyes widened a fraction as she hastily turned over in time to see her Titan counterpart pulling a billboard down from its stand and dropping it in her path. Red Raven went incorporeal in an instant and phased through the board. Raven followed a moment later, doing the same. Red Raven pulled up suddenly, whirling around and sending a beam of red matter at the Titan. Raven raised a bubble shield around herself and let the beam splash over her shelter.

Red Raven pushed, drilling more energy into Raven's shield. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" the Tyrant yelled. Her eyes glowed white and the beam widened and intensified.

Raven staggered under the added force and weight, trying desperately to keep her shield up. Red Raven was pushing her bubble back, almost to the wall behind her. The empath's face dripped with sweat.

"Getting tired?" Red Raven mocked.

_Azarath Metrion Zinthos… Azarath Metrion Zinthos…_ Raven chanted inside her head. Her energies realigned and refocused, strengthening her. She shoved outward and her shield expanded until it broke, bouncing Red Raven's beam straight back at her. Red Raven yelped as the crimson energy punched her in the chest.

"You wish," Raven said, rising up, her eyes now glowing as well.

Red Raven recovered from her chaotic tumble, in time to catch the tree Raven was swinging at her and wrest it from the empath's telekinetic grip. She let it fall and then sent her powers through the dirt and concrete, breaking up the street into rubble. She lifted the pieces up to float beside her. Grinning, she directed one of the pieces to intercept the advancing Raven.

Her aim was slightly off; it blew past the Titan a little too far to the left. Red Raven frowned and sent another piece flying at her. This one was too far right. She tried to zero in on the empath but her head rang with pain and she couldn't see straight enough to pinpoint Raven's flight path. Why couldn't she _focus?!_

Raven poured on the speed as she beelined for her opponent. Charging her fist with dark matter she drew it back and, in a move lifted directly from Starfire's lexicon, met the Teen Tyrant with a bone-shattering punch to the face and rocketed her back, straight into the wall of a building. Red Raven groaned as brick and mortar were dislodged all around her body, disappearing into her soul self as the impact caused a fire escape's supports to pull free and fall towards her.

The empath's arm still rang with the impact, the bones vibrating inside her flesh. Raven groaned and shook out her hand. Dull pain was settling into her muscles.

_And that's why I'm usually a distance fighter_, she thought dryly, rubbing her forearm.

She floated above the wreckage of the fire escape, looking for her double.

A great red shape stretched over her head. It was a hellish-looking creature, with skeletal wings and a barbed beaked face like a vulture. It dissolved soon enough, the energies swirling together to coalesce into Red Raven, who looked livid and murderous.

"That," she hissed, "hurt."

"Having trouble concentrating?" Raven asked, as Red Raven's clumsily aimed blast of red matter missed her by miles. "Maybe you've got a headache?" she guessed. Pressing her advantage, Raven grabbed hold of her opponent with her powers and sent the Tyrant careening into the ground again. "Unfortunately for you, _I _can fight around distractions," she growled, releasing her telekinetic hold on the Tyrant.

Red Raven stood up, her hands sparking with red energy. "Really?" she whispered dangerously.

She sent the lightning zig-zagging towards Raven, who blocked it with a hastily-projected shield. There was a white flash as their powers collided and a horrendous _BOOM!_ as the air rushed in to fill the gap. Raven was sent flying from the air and crashing into the video store behind her, skidding through several shelves until she finally came to a stop. The cases cascaded from the shelves on top of her in an avalanche, momentarily burying her underneath.

"Oh look. You're in the horror section, where you belong. _Freak,_" came Red Raven's voice from outside.

Raven sprang from the pile with a snarl, her powers clawing objects aside. Raw hate coursed through her, anger swelling up like a chaotic storm, blinding her. Her blood boiled hot. She wanted to _kill_—

She gasped, the glow sapping from her eyes and the rage draining from her body as suddenly as it had come. Her body and mind could still feel the traces of Red Raven's empathic touch. The Teen Tyrant had… _done_ something. Manipulated something inside of her, before Raven's mental defenses had forced her out.

"Wh… What?" she breathed, bewildered. "…How…?"

Red Raven put a hand on her hip, amused. "Don't tell me you've never used your powers that way," she said, feigning shock. "You're an empath. You don't just _sense_ other people's emotions, you know."

Raven shook her head, feeling unsteady on her feet. She was still reeling from the horror. Feeling what other people felt, she couldn't help that part. That was just how her empathic senses worked. But going in and _manipulating_ someone else's emotions? _Forcing_ them to feel a certain way? _Making_ them be angry, or afraid? She couldn't _fathom _performing such a… an intimate _violation_ of privacy and free will and other people's mental boundaries, even if it was just to make her teammates calm down and stop annoying her. The very thought made her sick.

Red Raven cast a knowing eye upon her. "But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you're too much of a Goody-Goody to do that," she sneered.

She raised her hand.

The shelf smashing into her left side caught Raven off guard. The empath uttered a pained cry as she was knocked aside. Raven scrambled up and ran for the back door, fear propelling her steps.

The door slammed shut in her face, glowing red. Raven whirled around to face her counterpart, her heart pounding.

Red Raven glared coolly at her. "You're holding back," she growled. "I know you are." She left behind flaming crimson footprints as she advanced, her eyes white with power, drawing energy into herself. "What are you so afraid of?" she taunted. "Come on, _Raven_."

_BLAM!_

The wall of red energy slammed into her, carrying her through the back wall of the video store, back out onto the streets. Raven flung the debris off of herself, black orbs surrounding her clenched fists, wary and on guard.

Her Tyrant opposite sauntered through the gaping hole. "Cut loose," she mocked. "Let me see your _true_ power."

Raven raised her eyes above Red Raven's head. With a yell, she enveloped the marquee with the store's name and yanked it down on top of Red Raven. Surprised by the move, the Tyrant only had time to put up a weak swathe of telekinetic shielding, and she was still driven to her knees by the impact.

"You know why I can't," Raven growled. "If I lose control, my powers could hurt somebody. They could hurt my friends." Not giving Red Raven time to rest, she pulled debris from all around and sent it to bury the demoness.

But Red Raven teleported away, disappearing before the debris could encircle her, and reappearing behind Raven, on the other side of the street.

"You're pathetic," she scoffed. Raven was blown away by a blast of red matter before she could react. "You think resisting your true nature will keep Daddy Dearest away?" Red Raven continued. Her white, glowing eyes narrowed eerily. "Face it. You're a coward. You're too scared of your own power to embrace what you are, let it make you _strong._"

Raven struggled to get up, but suddenly felt an invisible force take hold of her limbs. She cried out as Red Raven's telekinesis flung her into the air and then slammed her against the building. Raven grit her teeth from the pain but it lasted only a second before she was wrenched away and smashed into the side of a car.

"I can't believe a weakling like you is an alternate version of me," Red Raven said, as she tossed her Titan counterpart around like a ragdoll. She smacked Raven against the wall again and again. "I wonder," she mused, "are all of you puny Titans like this?" A grin spread across her face. "If your alien princess is anything like Blackfire, then she's hopelessly naïve and gullible. She'll be the easiest to kill."

Inside Raven, something cracked. A trickle of anger dripped past the strong dam that held her emotions at bay. She didn't need Red Raven's influence to needle what was already stirring up.

The empath raised her hand as Red Raven was moving to lift up her body again.

There was a flash and the demoness's hold on her broke. Energy went careening in all directions, punching through walls and windows, shattering brick and glass and concrete, rumbling through the ground like an earthquake. Red Raven staggered back from the force of the shockwave. She rubbed her eyes, their normal pink now, and peered through the dust cloud.

Raven knelt there on the sidewalk, her hands on the pavement, her cloak spread out on the ground around her. She had her head down, and Red Raven could see that she was shaking.

"_Don't,"_ came her voice in a low warning.

A beat passed, in which the demoness was frozen in place, and then Red Raven shook off her momentary unease and hesitation, and purposely strode forward.

"The tin man won't be hard to disassemble," she continued, taking gleeful pleasure in every word and how it was affecting Raven. "One finger snap and he's junkyard material. Robin, well…" She shrugged casually, stepping down off the sidewalk and crossing the street towards the downed empath. She gave a malicious smile. "I think you already know how much I want to tighten my fingers around his throat and _squeeze_ till I hear a pop and he goes limp in my grasp."

Raven's fingernails dug into the ground. Her eyes clamped shut.

Red Raven probed out with her mind, looking for a crack in Raven's defenses that she could feed anger through. "As for the shape-shifter… maybe something a little… _special,_" she emphasized. "He's the one you love, isn't he? I can tell. Not that I'm surprised. He's quite the eager little puppy." Raven's mental barriers were shoving back against her influence. Red Raven pressed on the defenses keeping her at bay, battered her will against them. They were weakening. She could feel Raven's rage quivering behind the wall and fed the emotion, growing it bit by tiny bit. "Wonder how he'll sound when he's begging for mercy," she considered.

"Stop," Raven said, tensing and tightening the gaps in her mental shield. "You _don't_ want to do this."

"Oh, I think I _do,_" the demoness sneered.

Closing the distance now, taking slow, deliberate steps, Red Raven said, "I'll think I'll morph him into a fish, and peel his scales off one by one as he lays there flopping and gasping on the ground. I'll let him morph back right when he's about to suffocate, and then you can watch the life drain out of his eyes."

Raven was absolutely still and ashen as Red Raven stopped in front of her. The Tyrant leaned down, smirking, and brought her face to Raven's level.

"Won't that be nice…" she whispered soothingly in the empath's ear, "…_Raven?"_

Raven's head snapped up and her eyes were demon red.

She let out a terrifying feral scream of rage, suddenly towering over the Tyrant, her cloak billowing out around her like it was part of the darkness that emanated from beneath her feet. Black flames flickered around her body, and the air was suddenly cold—bitingly, chillingly cold.

Red Raven's eyes widened and she stepped back in alarm as the apparition that was Raven grew in malice, surrounded by a maelstrom of waving black tendrils and rivulets that swirled around her, breaking apart the building behind her and sweeping the pieces of rubble into a whirlpool of destruction.

"_Fool!"_ Raven hissed, her voice echoing with demonic power. _"If you touch them__—any of them!__—it will be the last mistake you ever make!"_

Her hands came up, crackling with black lightning, and she shot a massive beam of dark matter at her opponent.

The Tyrant flung up her own beam to intercept, and the two energies crashed together, jockeying for supremacy. Red Raven tried to stand her ground, tapping into her own demonic power, but she was well and truly afraid. She'd meant to make her Titan counterpart lose control, but she'd had no idea an out-of-control Raven would be _that_ powerful, _that_ unstable. The entity that was Raven was single-minded enough that an unexpected attack from her blindside could incapacitate her or restrain her, but Red Raven was expending too much energy on just holding the beam back to spare any on such a venture.

Raven's beam pushed closer and closer, and Red Raven's feeble scarlet counter-beam grew ever smaller. She panted with the effort of holding the energy back. For a moment, she was worried that she'd lose.

A green blur darted in from the side abruptly, and then an emerald bighorn ram slammed into Raven from the side, knocking her from the air and dispelling her demonic influence. The Titan hit the pavement with a groan, but then lay still and silent.

The rubble hung in the air a moment before crashing to the ground.

The ram pawed the earth with his hoof in satisfaction, snorting, before reverting into a familiar crouched, wild-haired and scraggly form.

"Changeling!" Red Raven cried in relief and concern, dropping her hands and running to him. "What are you doing here?" she demanded, a note of hysteria in her voice. Her hands settled on his back and shoulders, checking him for injuries. He had a new gash across his back, a sword slice it looked like. Not deep. A glancing strike at worst. "What happened? I thought I told you to keep watch over the other end of the portal Red Robin and Blackfire opened," she said, pressing her palm across the wound and stitching it closed with her powers.

"That's what I was doing," he assured her, not reacting to her concern. He kept his eyes on the downed Raven, watching her suspiciously. "But I didn't know how to contact you. I don't have one of those fancy communicator thingys."

"What happened?" Red Raven repeated.

He finally met her gaze and his expression was pure hatred.

"_He_ came through," Changeling snarled.

Red Raven frowned deeply. Reading the shape-shifter's emotions and feeling his pure unadulterated loathing left no doubt in her mind as to the "he" Changeling was referring to.

She gnashed her teeth, then regretted it when it made her headache worsen. "Was he alone?" she pressed.

Changeling nodded. "Yeah. But he's tracking you. I followed him for a while, then I broke off when I caught your scent."

The demoness muttered a curse, pulling out her communicator. "We'll need to regroup and lie low for a while. Come on," she told him.

She enveloped him in her cloak, turning both of them scarlet, and then a moment later was sailing up as her soul self. The vulture shape gave a caw as it passed over the rooftops.

Raven stirred just in time to see the trailing end of it disappear around the corner. Gingerly, trembling, she pushed herself into a sitting position, curling her legs underneath her and assuming lotus position. She could still feel the storm raging inside her, sense Rage on the loose, begging to be let out.

She shoved the emotion back down, re-erecting the walls around her mind and willing herself to calm.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos…" she breathed like a prayer. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos…"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like I said, Raven vs. Red Raven was IMMENSELY fun to write. Oh my gosh Red Raven is so deliciously evil and twisted! And of course I made their battle the most destructive. Two half-demonic telekinetics duking it out? Not good for private property. Ngh, and Red Raven using her empathy against Raven. That's always been something that's kind of bugged me about Comics!Raven, at least in the eighties run. She doesn't really have any qualms about forcing or manipulating people's emotions to achieve some end. Sometimes it's relatively innocuous, like when she saps anger out of a mob or something, but sometimes it's really questionable and skeevy. (Forcing romantic attraction onto someone who otherwise doesn't love her, for example.) Cartoon!Raven on the other hand, what with her being super-protective of her physical and mental privacy, I just can't see her forcing emotions on other people. So I figured she'd be tremendously horrified by Red Raven's ability to manipulate people's feelings.
> 
> And yes, that was a nod/reference to All-Star Batman And Robin in Robin's section there. I figured Frank Miller's Batman is close enough to what an actual villainous Batman would be in the Tyrantverse so I borrowed his dialogue. /blatant potshot


	9. Interruption

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back again dear readers! We're not quite taking our feet off the pedal just yet, but we're easing up on the ignition a bit this chapter. (I love this metaphor.) It's not quite as long as the previous chapter, but still pretty hefty. I have some comments about various things but I'll save them for afterwards, so as not to spoil any of the fun for you. Let's just say we take an interesting peek into the Tyrants' universe.
> 
> Also, expository dialogue is a pain.

Glittering droplets of water were flung in all directions as Starfire whipped around to face the oncoming Tempest and deck him squarely in the face.

Tempest grunted sharply, reeling back. Starfire yelled, her arms coming around the Tyrant's mid-section as she flew up and then smashed him neatly into a car. The frame crumpled in on itself, the roof collapsing and denting into the cabin, the glass windows splintering but managing to hold their shape.

Starfire sat up, straddling Tempest, as she planted one more solid right hook into the Tyrant's cheek.

The lid of a fire hydrant blew off and a pillar of water smacked into her from the side. Starfire twisted, put her hand in the stream and formed a starbolt, shielding herself from the angry jet of water until she could fly up out of it.

Starbolts rained down on her from above. Starfire curled her arms in front of her and ducked her head as Blackfire flung them at her with malicious glee. The Titan moved out of range and glared up at her opponent. Drifting back in the air, she shot a couple starbolts towards the swooping Tyrant.

The first Blackfire swerved around, but the second glanced off her thigh, knocking her a-kilter for a moment. The dark-haired Tamaranian recovered quickly though, looping around and coming in for a pass.

Starfire set her features firmly and dropped, moving back into Tempest's range. The hydrokinetic Atlantian had pried himself from the car and his gleaming black eyes watched her like a predator. He directed the jet of water still spewing from the fire hydrant straight at her.

Exactly as she'd hoped. Starfire angled herself out of the way so that Blackfire, close on her heels, got the full blast in her face.

Blackfire only had time to widen her eyes and gasp before the packed spray smacked into her. Her limbs splayed out like she'd smashed straight into a wall and the water pushed her away.

Tempest cringed apologetically, immediately dropping his telekinetic hold on the water. Too late for Blackfire, who was already halfway down the street. Starfire was closing in though, so Tempest reached to grab hold of the water again.

As a new hydro whip was forming, Starfire's eyes lit up and she pegged him in the gut with her eyebeams. Tempest doubled slightly at the waist, uttered a breathless groan. The water shuddered, the surface tension rippling and threatening to lose its form.

But it soon became solid again and he sent it stabbing through the air towards her.

Starfire met the water whip with her eyebeams, shooting her green energy straight through the center. Both attacks canceled each other out.

Then she was in close, and Tempest had to duck another one of her heavy punches. He'd gotten into plenty of scrabbles with Blackfire, so he could dodge Starfire's blows relatively well too. He was quicker than either of them; he had to be out of sheer necessity, because he knew how powerful his Tamaranian teammate was and all evidence led him to suspect her Titan counterpart was just as strong.

So he snaked his body this way and that avoiding her punches, finally slipping around her into the clear. He slashed the tip of his hook at her back, scraping her skin and drawing blood as she pulled away, not quite in time to avoid it.

Suddenly he felt a hot searing sting on his rear. He yelped, jumping about a foot, and then whirled around to give Blackfire an angry glare.

"What the hell was _that_ for?!" he complained.

She was floating next to the still-spewing fire hydrant and scowling mightily. "I am tired of receiving attacks meant for our enemies," she growled through her teeth.

"I'm _sorry_, all right?" he said, exasperated. "I didn't _mean_ to hit you. _Jeez._"

She gave a small nod to acknowledge she accepted his apology, then both of them faced Starfire.

They charged. Tempest hauled up a glut of water from the hydrant and Blackfire held her starbolts close to her chest as she blazed in. Starfire backed up in the air nervously a moment, but then set her features and narrowed her eyes with a growl and all of a sudden her own starbolts were rapid-fire, shooting out at almost machine gun speed as she pointed each of her hands at her opponents.

Under the persistent quick volley, Blackfire's charge was halted and she had to shield herself with a weak starbolt wall, as the peppering pushed her back in the air.

Tempest drew his hand in a sweeping motion, raising up a whirlwind of water beneath his feet to propel him into closer range to her.

But Starfire sliced her eyebeams in a diagonal line across the base of it, disrupting the movement and Tempest's mental hold on the water column, which broke up into pieces and dissolved, falling back down to the street. Tempest's limbs flailed rather comically as he found his footing gone and plummeted right after it.

A starbolt cut close to her head, hitting the wall behind her. Starfire flinched, flying up and over the rooftop as Blackfire gave chase, flinging more starbolts after her. They traded shots as Starfire led the fight to a new street.

"Fleeing is the action of a coward, my double!" Blackfire called to her.

Starfire slowed as she reached an intersection and turned to face the Tyrant. "I am not fleeing," she corrected. "I am choosing a new arena."

Blackfire also stopped, putting her hands on her hips and hovering in mid-air. "I do not see what is so advantageous about this spot," she huffed.

The Titan merely gave a satisfied smirk.

"_That,_" she said.

She pointed and in the same moment shot off a starbolt, which blasted into an empty bit of construction scaffolding above Blackfire's head. The supports on one end were destroyed, and the metal scaffolding swung down to strike Blackfire.

_"Ungh!"_ the Tyrant cried, pain exploding from the top of her skull and washing down the rest of her, pushing her several feet lower in the air. She looked up at the scaffolding furiously, rubbing her head.

Shooting a glare at Starfire she took hold of the dangling scaffolding and ripped it free from the building, tearing chunks of brick and concrete along with it. She brandished it like a club, raising it high above her head. Starfire charged her hands and drew them back.

But then she hesitated, her eyes darting downwards.

Blackfire followed her gaze to see a young couple with their daughter on the street below, staring up at them, their mouths open. Both girls looked up again and their eyes made contact. Starfire's gaze held a desperate entreaty and Blackfire could practically hear the other girl begging her not to do what she was thinking.

The Tyrant gave a cruel grin, hefting the scaffolding with both hands. She knew _exactly_ what action to take now.

She flung it off, hurling it with all her might, but Starfire was already moving, already diving, rocketing through the air with blind panic fueling her speed. Before the twisted metal had even come close to threatening the innocent family, she had gathered all three of them up in her strong Tamaranian arms, and moved them out of the way.

The scaffolding crashed behind them with a loud _BANG!_

Starfire landed and set the parents down on their shaky knees. The little girl clung tight to Starfire's neck, wide-eyed and terrified, and Starfire gently pried her arms off before depositing her into her father's arms.

She pushed open a nearby door.

"Please, go inside and find suitable cover. I will draw her off from this area momentarily," she instructed.

They obeyed her at once, the mother shooting a grateful look over her shoulder as the door closed.

No sooner had they disappeared than Starfire felt herself hit in the back with an eyebeam blast. She yelped, bracing her hands on the sidewalk. Conscious of the people she needed to protect, though, she soon pushed off and was in the air again, dodging and dipping around the starbolts that Blackfire threw at her.

Starfire retreated before the onslaught, drawing the Teen Tyrant away from the buildings, raising the battle higher, much higher, where she stopped and flipped over to face her opponent.

Blackfire slowed as she reached Starfire's level, breathless with triumph. "A foolish action, dear 'sister'. You left yourself vulnerable to my attack," she crowed. She puffed herself up with superiority. "Your compassion makes you weak," she sneered. Her fists clenched as if to show that _she_ clearly had no use for such a thing.

"I do not consider it so foolish," Starfire said calmly. She explained further, her voice absolutely tranquil. "Because I intervened, the family is safe. You could not harm them." Her features hardened. "And you _will_ not."

Starfire raised her hands, charging her starbolts.

"You are wrong about me, Blackfire," she said, as the green orbs crackled. "And you both have made a mistake in challenging me."

Blackfire raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Oh?"

Starfire waved down towards the street grid below them, where Tempest could be seen riding a wave down one of the roads in their direction. "You are Tamaranian. He is Atlantian," she explained. She raised her hands, clenching her fists tightly. "So _I_ do not have to hold back."

The beam that shot out from her palms then didn't _quite_ catch Blackfire off-guard, but she still wasn't ready for the force of it, and was shoved backwards in the air. Blackfire hissed through her teeth discontentedly, lowering her hands, only to find Starfire diving in at high speed.

Her eyes widened a fraction. Before she could react, Starfire had rammed into her, pushing her down, down, down towards the rapidly-approaching rooftops. The Tyrant could barely see through the ebony hair whipping into her face from the wind generated by their speed. Blackfire spat out a flying lock and grabbed for the Titan's hands but too late, she felt the impact with the mortar and asphalt on her back. Starfire disengaged and watched her opponent skid along the roof for a while before the Tyrant flipped over in an undignified tumble.

She held herself at the ready, summoning her starbolts again.

Blackfire got shakily to her feet. She wobbled a moment before steadying herself. Her heather eyes no longer held any trace of delight or amusement. Her brows furrowed low over her eyes.

"You have not won this fight yet," she growled.

She zoomed forward and threw a punch, which Starfire ducked, twisting and coming up again behind her. Blackfire felt the back of her shirt and her collar being grabbed.

Starfire yanked the Tyrant up into the air and flew forward, straight for a wall, which she bodily slammed Blackfire into. The Tyrant grunted as the wind was knocked out of her. Starfire wasn't done. She pulled them away from the wall, hovering for a moment above the street.

Then she swung Blackfire around in a fast circle and released her, throwing with all the strength she possessed.

_Blam!_

Blackfire's landing cracked the pavement underneath her, formed a small crater. The Tyrant peeled herself painfully off the concrete, coughing into her fist.

Starfire descended, ready to continue the fight, but the sound of rushing water caught her attention. Her head jerked to the left. Tempest's wave rounded the corner and barreled towards her like an angry tsunami.

The alien princess had enough sense to take a deep breath and hold it before the wave surrounded her. Starfire was buffeted by the whirling currents, rolling this way and that, but she managed to keep her head up.

Wet, slimy arms came around her and Starfire couldn't help letting a closed-mouth shriek—and a few bubbles' worth of precious air—escape her. Tempest wrestled with her underwater, yanking at her hair, his hook glancing off her skin. His strength was incredible. Starfire struggled desperately, her lungs straining. She hadn't taken enough air in, hadn't been able to store it properly. It was running out quickly.

Digging her fingernails into Tempest's arm, she let righteous fury course through her veins, building up. Her eyes glowed, eerie green in the bubble of water Tempest held her in.

Starbolt energy exploded out from her body in all directions, breaking the bubble and throwing Tempest off her back. Welcome air hit Starfire's face and she breathed it in heavily, as her feet came to rest on the ground.

Tempest raised his head and looked up at her, in mingled awe and fear.

She was thoroughly soaked. Her hair was disheveled. Her clothes bore rips here and there from Tempest's hook. Rivulets of water and blood from her cuts intermingled and trailed down her limbs, all stiffly apart and tensed. She was something feral… and terrifying.

Starfire fixed him with her glowing green eyes and yelled. She descended on him in an instant, picking him up and smacking him face first into a metal-barred security door for one of the buildings. Tempest yelped in protest, trying to twist his head so the bars wouldn't dig into his cheek. Starfire pulled mightily at the bars, breaking connections, wrapping the ends around Tempest's limbs, shredding the door into confetti and then tangling the Tyrant up in it.

"Hey! What the—"

She pulled on the last loose end and Tempest squawked indignantly, hopelessly pinned like a fly in the spider web of metal bars.

Blackfire's starbolts were buzzing her by now, so she stepped away from her handiwork and engaged her counterpart. They maneuvered around each other, winding up on opposite ends of the streets. And then, as if both of them had had the same idea, they shot starbolt beams from their hands at each other.

The identical green energy met and collided in the middle. The sparks between them vibrated and jerked, as each tried to force her will forward to break the stalemate.

Starfire made herself think of the family Blackfire had endangered, of the innocent people she'd threatened or harmed, the damage and theft done to their property. She thought of her friends, locked in combat with the other Tyrants. She imagined them in danger, needing her.

And righteous fury churned through her veins. She let the emotion fill her, let it boil her blood and pound in her ears. And then she _shoved _it all out through her hands, into her starbolts.

Her beam pushed forward, driving Blackfire's back, the crackling ball of energy between them moving inch by inch away from her and towards her opponent. Blackfire gaped in disbelief as her beam shrank. She tried to hold steady, tried to gain back ground and halt the force driving her back. It took every once of strength she had and it still wasn't enough.

Starfire's jaw was set and her teeth were clenched. She gave a final shove.

Starbolt energy smacked into Blackfire's front, blowing her away. Her back hit the wall and she slid down, grunting in surprise. She looked up at her Titan counterpart, bewildered. Starfire's eyes were glowing, and it seemed she towered, powerful and strong like one of her mythical namesakes.

Blackfire snarled, leaping up, refusing to be intimidated. Starfire raised her hands above her head, already forming a massive starbolt, that grew swiftly until it was a blinding neon green sun hovering above her palms.

As the Tyrant tried to charge her, she let it fall.

The very air seemed to explode. Light seared into her eyes and the hot starbolt energy washed over her, burning, singeing. The starbolt bomb rattled the very ground beneath her feet. The force shook the bones inside her. Her head jangled.

And then the energy expended itself, leaving only ruin and dust in its wake.

She was down, dizzy, dazed from the blast. Smoke drifted up from the pavement. Glass littered the sidewalk. And Starfire still stood, her shoulders heaving as she caught her breath.

For several long moments, there was no movement. Starfire huffed in and out, exhausted. Blackfire lay where she was, staring up at the sky with glazed eyes.

Eventually, she rolled herself up to a sitting position. Starfire tensed, and looked ready to begin another round. But the Tyrant just gazed at her, with a kind of quiet respect.

She opened her mouth to speak, and her voice wavered with an odd tone of doubt.

"I do not understand. How can you best me? How can you have such power?"

"Righteous fury," Starfire explained softly. She swept her hand towards the Tyrant. "You fight only for yourself, so you are only as strong as your own anger. I fight for others. I fight to end wrongs that would harm the innocent. I _feel_ for them, and those feelings give me strength." She took a step backwards. "You called my compassion foolish." Her features became steel. "But it is compassion that makes me strong."

Blackfire dipped her head. She closed her eyes, a small smile tugging at her mouth. "I have underestimated you," she admitted.

She had taken her Titan counterpart for a silly air-headed girl, too sweet to be an effective fighter, too nice to really _battle_ someone. But the Titan had proved her wrong. Blow for blow, Starfire had matched her. Her strength did not wane. Blackfire got her hands underneath her and pushed herself to her feet. Starfire tensed once again, but the Tyrant merely brushed herself off, dusting flakes of brick from her arms.

"Very well. The victory is yours," Blackfire said casually.

Starfire blinked in surprise. "You are… leaving?"

"It is pointless to continue the battle." She glanced briefly towards Tempest, still squirming in the tangle of metal bars. "Unlike some of my teammates, I know when I am outmatched." Blackfire straightened, giving the Titan a nod of respect. "You are a formidable opponent, self from this universe," she complimented.

Starfire stared quietly a moment, and then relaxed her guard, giving a nod in return.

The Tyrant turned around and sauntered over to Tempest, still glaring peevishly from the door he was caught in. She deftly yanked him out of the tangle, making him yell. Taking him by the back of his shirt, she lifted up.

"Come Tempest, let us return to our companions," she said, already gaining altitude and flying off.

"Turn around, I'm not _done_ yet!" he complained, kicking his legs uselessly.

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, I am sure you had quite a few more of the fire hydrants to destroy before she bested you with security bars."

Their voices grew fainter as they disappeared over the skyline.

Starfire let herself sink to her knees, fatigue overcoming her as her adrenaline levels subsided.

-TT-

**System Scan complete… Initializing start-up… Stand by, reboot in progress…**

**Rebooting…**

**…**

**…**

**…**

**System online.**

Cyber-Vile hissed through his teeth as he raised his head. Everything inside felt like it was still vibrating. The half-robot sat up slowly, analyzing his surroundings, and his current condition. Strangely, he was outside. Mall security must have moved him, deposited him on the sidewalk outside the store where he'd been fighting his counterpart. They were nowhere to be seen now, probably fearful of what he'd do to them once he woke. His electronics were still frazzled, fizzing and sparking from the EMP. But the shutdown that had kicked in saved him from most of it. It didn't feel like his targeting scopes were ever going to align properly again though.

The half-robot stood, already accessing the computer in his arm. He made adjustments to his systems, sorting himself out.

"Oh good. You're still here." Cyber-Vile glanced up to see the figures of Red Raven and Changeling dissolving out of a scarlet bird-shape. Red Raven stepped over to him as Changeling shook himself, slightly dazed from the trip. The demoness held up her communicator. "Having a little trouble with this thing. Mind taking a quick look at it?"

She passed it to him, and Cyber-Vile took it. His thought processing whirred a moment, assessing whether or not to inform her of what had gone down on his end. With a sigh, he decided to forge ahead.

"Apology: I was unable to recover the electromagnetic generator we were using to boost your teleportation powers," he explained.

Red Raven's mouth flattened into a frown and her eyes grew hard. "Care to repeat that?" she growled.

"My counterpart from this reality picked up the device. He fled, I pursued. However, he managed to escape. Statement: I believe the device is still with him. I am sorry."

"So we're stuck here?"

"For the time being, yes."

The demoness spun on her heel with a frustrated snarl and blasted a mailbox apart with her powers. Changeling flinched a little at the loud bang.

Simmering, Red Raven turned back to Cyber-Vile. "Great," she sighed. "Bad news on top of more bad news. This day just keeps getting better."

Cyber-Vile's circuits churned. "Suggestion: It might be possible to—"

"We'll worry about it later, Cy," she interrupted. "Right now, just get ahold of the others." She stepped back, putting her hands on her hips and addressing the shape-shifter. "Changeling?"

He straightened, crouching like an attentive retriever. "Yeah Rae?"

"Keep a sharp eye out," she ordered. "Let us know if you hear or smell anything that's not supposed to be here."

"Roger!" he chirruped, saluting with a grin before morphing into a mouse and skittering up a pipe.

-TT-

Red Robin dodged the slashing green claws of Beast Boy, prowling around him in lion form and pouncing every so often for a strike. The shape-shifter growled low, circling around and leaping for the Tyrant's back. Red Robin ducked, letting the changeling sail over him and blunder into the curb.

Beast Boy tripped and rolled head over heels onto the sidewalk.

Red Robin stayed crouched, sparing a glance towards where Arsenal and Robin were tussling. Arsenal had his hands around each of Robin's wrists, preventing him from throwing a punch or swinging the sword he still had clutched in his hand. The two of them were locked in a wrestling match, Arsenal pushing and Robin stumbling back until he fell against a parked car. As Arsenal leaned forward to pin him down, the Boy Wonder kicked him in the chest, making him let go and topple back. Robin curled up and put his hands down on the hood, somersaulting neatly over the car.

There was a catlike snarl from his left and Red Robin snapped to attention in time to see Beast Boy lunging for him, now in cougar form. The Tyrant leapt to his feet and slashed a kick into the cougar's flank. Beast Boy yelped, rolling along the ground, but dug in his paws to pull himself upright, then shifted into a large mountain goat and lowered his horns at Red Robin.

_BAM!_

The Teen Tyrant went down hard, winded from the blow to his stomach.

Beast Boy rammed him again as he was trying to get up, putting him back down. Red Robin put up his arms to shield his face as the changeling ran over him then, stepping on him with his hooves. Beast Boy was turning around for another pass when an arrow narrowly missed his head.

The changeling saw Arsenal reloading and morphed into a turtle. The arrow pinged off his shell. Arsenal reached for another arrow but then Robin's arms were around his neck and the Boy Wonder was putting him in a headlock, wrangling him to the pavement.

Beast Boy peeked out of his turtle shell only to yank his head back in as Red Robin threw several bird-a-rangs at him. The Tyrant rose, looking livid, blood trailing from the corner of his mouth. He clutched a hand to his shoulder as he got to his feet.

_Dammit_, he thought murderously. _Little snot stepped on my collarbone!_

Red Robin smirked as the changeling grew into a velociraptor and lumbered towards him. Even with a cracked collarbone, he could pull this next move off.

He waited until the changeling was too close to slow down and then expertly flipped up onto an awning. Beast Boy's blank white eyes widened but he couldn't stop himself from smacking straight into the pole of the traffic light that had been behind his opponent.

He saw stars and wobbled around dizzily as he morphed back to normal.

Red Robin hopped down from the awning, reaching into his belt. "Arsenal!" he called. From his belt he withdrew a set of bolos.

Arsenal, busy shooting arrows at Robin that the Boy Wonder deflected with his sword, caught his teammate's gaze and his drift, and aimed his next arrow at Robin's feet. The Titan was forced to take a few steps back, maneuvering him closer to the still-staggering Beast Boy. Red Robin threw the bolos out.

As they struck Beast Boy's chest and started to wrap around him, he tilted back and fell into Robin, tangling both of them up in the cord's grip, just as Red Robin had planned.

Beast Boy's sudden weight on his back pushed Robin off his feet; his eyes widened but with his arms pinned down he couldn't stop himself from hitting the pavement face-first.

He got his hands out from underneath his stomach and tried to raise his sword to cut the wire, but Red Robin's boot stomped down on his wrist.

"Ahh!"

His double stood on his hand, grinning from malicious delight, as Arsenal came over, grabbed a fistful of his tunic and collar and hauled him up.

"That old trick actually worked? Pathetic," the archer said.

"I know, right?" Red Robin agreed.

Robin glared coolly as Arsenal leveled the crossbow point-blank at his head, aiming it at the spot right between his eyes. "Is it okay if I kill him?" the archer asked, staring the Titan down.

Red Robin crossed his arms over his chest. "Go ahead," he told the other boy, his voice strangely cold. "You'll be doing this world a favor ridding it of this miserable annoying sanctimonious goody-two-shoes."

The Boy Wonder squirmed in protest at that, gritting his teeth. The bolos held fast, tight around his and Beast Boy's torsos. The changeling felt like a deadweight behind him. Was he okay?

He couldn't turn his head to look. Arsenal pressed the tip of his arrow right up against Robin's forehead.

"Say hello to your Maker," the Tyrant said with a gleeful growl.

Robin tensed. Arsenal's finger gripped the trigger—

Someone's communicator beeped.

Arsenal and Red Robin both looked up, distracted. Red Robin felt around in his belt for the offending device, pulling it out and yanking it open with more force than necessary.

"What?" he snapped.

Beast Boy made his move then. He shrank into a python and slithered out of the binds, wrapping around one of Red Robin's arms in an instant, making the Tyrant squawk and flail his hand frantically, trying to shake the serpent off.

Meanwhile, the loops of the bolos falling loose around him, Robin wasted no time and brought his sword up, smacking Arsenal's crossbow away from his head. The two were soon locked in combat again, Robin slashing and jabbing with his sword.

From the communicator came the dry, sarcastic voice of Red Raven.

"Drop what you're doing kids," she ordered. "Mama duck says it's time for the ducklings to fall in line."

"Raven?" came Blackfire's voice over the channel, confused.

Red Robin clenched his teeth, still trying to jostle Beast Boy off his arm. "We're kind of in the middle of something, Rae," he grumbled.

"This one's _your_ fault, Robin. You don't get to complain."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Red Robin demanded, leaning back from a fanged strike Beast Boy aimed at his face.

"An old 'friend' from our home dimension just came through the portal you made," she said, putting such a bitter sardonic emphasis on the word friend that Red Robin frowned knowingly. "Changeling says he's on our tail. We can't stay in the open," Red Raven continued. "So unless you'd like to meet the business end of a blade, I suggest you break off whatever you're doing."

Arsenal scowled even as he blocked Robin's sword strike with an escrima stick from his backpack. "You always ruin things right when they're getting fun!" he complained.

"Maybe I didn't make myself clear..." they heard Red Raven say, her voice rumbling with annoyance. "Get. Here. _Now._"

Red Robin finally managed to fling the snake off his arm. "All right, just—" Beast Boy's form was already morphing in midair, so he switched the communicator to his less dominant hand. "Blackfire and I have a hideout in town. I'll send you the coordinates and then we'll meet you there." He flipped the communicator closed and stowed it away. "Arsenal?"

"Yeah yeah," the archer groused, shouldering his crossbow and then kicking Robin in the stomach to get enough clearance to bolt. "I'm coming," he said, putting up his escrima.

The archer quickly made his way to Red Robin's side. As Beast Boy was closing in, form that of hard-headed angry boar, the Teen Tyrant threw down a handful of smoke grenades.

Confused by the smoke, Beast Boy veered too far left of his targets, and even as he shifted back to normal he could already hear them grappling up the buildings and escaping over the rooftops. He shook his fist at their receding forms.

"Hey! Come back here you cowards!" he challenged.

He might have shifted into a falcon and taken flight to pursue them, but Robin put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"Beast Boy," the Boy Wonder said wearily, looking off where the Tyrants had disappeared, "let 'em go."

The changeling made a noise of resentment in his throat, but obeyed.

Robin stepped back and then sank tiredly down to sit on the curb, his sword hanging limp by his side. He got his breath back slowly, and rubbed a bruise on his chin.

Beast Boy came and stood by Robin, observing the other Titan in concern. "You don't look so good, dude," he pronounced, rather bluntly.

The Boy Wonder managed a faint smile. "Other Me has a mean left hook," he explained. He pulled out his own communicator and switched it on. "Titans, report. Is everyone all right?"

There was just static and a squealing at first. Robin let go of his sword and smacked the device in frustration. The static cut out.

"Titans, can you hear me?" he asked again.

"Yes Robin!" came Starfire's voice, happy and triumphant, and Robin visibly relaxed, tension easing out of his body. "My counterpart, and Aqualad's, have retreated, and I am victorious!" the alien princess went on.

Then came Raven's voice, soft and slightly strained. "I'm… I'm okay too," she said, though she didn't sound entirely sure. "Is Beast Boy…?"

"He's here with me, Raven," Robin told her.

They heard a sigh of relief over the channel. "Thank Azar," Raven said.

"Cyborg?" Robin called.

Slightly wavering, Cyborg answered, "Yeah… I'm here… Took a hit from an EMP pulse to lose my evil twin. My systems are all scrambled. But I can navigate well enough to move around."

Robin nodded. "Good. Rendezvous in front of the Needle Tower. We'll figure out what to do about the Tyrants from there."

-TT-

Cyborg shuffled along the sidewalk, stumbling occasionally over a hidden bump or a curb. He was still dazed from the EMP. His eyes weren't quite focusing right. But other than that, and a few lingering inner ear problems, he felt mostly okay. There was the usual random glitching in his visual readout from the portal interference, but it was minor. Cyborg checked on the wormhole with his long-range scanners anyway.

He frowned. It seemed to have gotten bigger since the last time he'd looked at it. The edges were now twisting around, bisecting the street diagonally instead of horizontally, and the focal point had shifted higher, about six or seven feet off the ground now. He'd have to run another, more thorough analysis on it back at the Tower.

He reached the rendezvous point. Raven was already there, shrouded in her cloak with the hood pulled up. Her violet eyes glanced at him as he came to join her. Cyborg thought she looked a little shaken, but he refrained from speaking or asking her about it. Raven didn't like it when people pried.

There was a flutter of wings above them, and then Beast Boy dropped down to the street to join them, after morphing from eagle form.

"Robin's right behind me," he said, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb. "He'll be here in a few—"

Raven crossed the short distance between them, enveloping Beast Boy in a tight hug before he could finish.

Taken aback, Beast Boy stared at her and stood there stupidly, his hand still raised. "Are... you okay, Raven?" he asked, eyebrows furrowing in concern.

She gripped him tighter. The intimacy and closeness made her heart pound nervously, but she couldn't let go. She felt he might just slip away if she did, might vanish into the ether. "Don't… don't ever die on me," she told him. "Okay?"

Beast Boy looked over her at Cyborg, who just shrugged.

"Uh…" he said. "Okay. I'll try, I guess." Taking her by the shoulders, he gently detached her from the embrace. "Seriously Raven, are you okay?" he asked, looking straight into her face.

She avoided eye contact, staring off to the side. "I'm… my emotions are a little all over the place right now," she deflected. "The empathic feedback from that portal is making it hard to keep a handle on them." She turned away from him. "I'll be fine."

She was saved from further inquiry by Starfire's arrival. Beast Boy took one look at the Tamaranian and exclaimed, "DUDE!"

"Fear not," she told him, wringing the last few droplets of water out of her hair. "I am not that badly damaged."

Starfire tossed her hair back over her shoulder. She had washed off most of the dirt and the blood and was almost dry now, but her clothes were still ragged and her hair was still frizzy, and no amount of water could wash away the numerous tell-tale cuts and scrapes on her orange skin.

Raven stepped forward, grateful for something to do. "I take it your fight went about as well as mine?" she guessed, raising her hand and touching it to one of Starfire's cuts to heal it.

"It was a hard battle," Starfire relayed, as the empath went about patching her up. "My counterpart was quite persistent, and the Tempest was not an easy foe to best either, but eventually I prevailed and won the fight!"

"Think you were the only one."

The Titans turned to see their leader joining them. Robin hopped down from the balcony of the adjacent building and walked over to where they crowded.

"Oh, Azar…" Raven sighed in exasperation, looking him over. She ran a palm down her face tiredly. "_Please_ tell me Red Robin looks worse than you."

"About the same, actually," Robin told her. He flinched away from Starfire's worried poking at the cut on his lip. "Ow!"

"Sorry!" Starfire said, stepping back at once and putting her hands behind her back.

Wordlessly, Raven crossed to him and began touching his scrapes and bruises with her healing powers. As she doctored him, Robin looked over towards Cyborg, who was fiddling with the electromagnetic generator.

"What is that, exactly?" he asked.

"My guess? Kilowatt's replacement. Raven's evil twin used electromagnetism to boost her powers so she could open up a portal for her and the rest of the motley crew to come through, same as last time," Cyborg explained. "Just with good ol' technology instead of a captured Titan."

Beast Boy's brows scrunched over his eyes. "Wait," he said, "so… the other Tyrants _didn't_ use the portal thingy that Evil Robin and Evil Star used?"

Robin shook his head. "I saw Red Raven open a window with her powers. But it closed immediately after the Tyrants came through. You're saying there's another portal?"

"Downtown," Raven told him, finishing up and stepping back. "It's the one Red Robin and Blackfire must've used to get here. Somehow they must have managed to find a different way to tear a hole between the realities."

"Problem is in _that_ case, the rift is still there," Cyborg continued, scrolling through the scanner displays on his arm. "It's been growing and shifting, and energy's been leaking from it all day. That's what's causing the interference on our communicators."

"Been causing us headaches since morning," Raven grumbled. She pointed to her temple. "In my case, literally."

Robin looked concerned. "Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?"

Cyborg shrugged his shoulders. "Didn't get a chance to. Too busy running around after escaped convicts."

"That was my counterpart—and Robin's—to blame, I fear. I am sorry," Starfire spoke up, lowering her head softly.

The Boy Wonder, meanwhile, breathed a sigh. "All right," He addressed all of them. "Where are we now?"

Cyborg switched off his arm computer and straightened. "Well without this," he said, tapping the electromagnetic generator device, "Red Raven and her friends aren't going anywhere, 'less they can find another source of electromagnetism or they're brave enough to try exiting through the other portal."

"They won't do that, though," Raven said. "Not right away." she added, seeing everyone's quizzical eyes on her. "Someone else came through that rift. Someone they're afraid of."

Robin nodded, remembering Red Raven's call to draw away her friends. "They'll stay put for now. Hide until it's safe."

Beast Boy was scratching his chin. "Didn't Robin—the other Robin, the evil one—say something about a secret hideout?"

"He did," Robin confirmed. Squaring his shoulders, his tone became all business and 'this is what we're going to do', and the other Titans paid rapt attention. "Okay Titans," their leader said, "we need to locate the Tyrants' hiding place and we need to do it soon, before they decide to move. It'll be our best chance of finding them and stopping them before they can do any more damage." Robin turned to the changeling. "Beast Boy?"

"Yes sir?"

"Scout around. See if you can pick up their scent and trace it to their current location," he ordered.

"I'll go with him," Raven volunteered at once.

She seemed a little on edge, but Robin didn't question her decision. "Okay. Start where Red Raven and the other Tyrants came through and work your way east. I'll go south. Cyborg—"

"Head west?" the half-robot guessed.

Robin nodded. "Yeah."

"Then I shall search to the north," Starfire concluded.

"Keep in contact," Robin instructed them, holding up his communicator for a visual aide. "Report in every twenty-five minutes. Sooner, if you find something." Stepping back, he met each other their gazes with a serious look. "Since the Tyrants are trapped here for all intents and purposes, they'll be desperate. That makes them even more dangerous. So keep your guards up and don't let them get the jump on you. And watch out for whoever else came through from their reality."

"Will do," Beast Boy acknowledged.

He and Raven departed, Raven soundlessly floating up above the street and him shifting into crow form and flying by her side. They moved off towards the point of the initial confrontation.

As Cyborg turned to go as well, already scanning ahead of him for foreign energy signatures, Robin came over to Starfire and embraced her softly.

"Be safe," he whispered in her ear.

They drew apart slightly, and Starfire touched her hand to his face. "You as well," she told him. Her eyes shone with worry.

His gloved hands cupped her face and he kissed her earnestly. Starfire draped her arms around his neck and leaned into it, let him press his lips into hers, treasuring the brief happy moment of affection for as long as it lasted.

They broke the kiss, and Robin stroked her cheek one last time before he let go.

"Good luck," she called to him as she rose up into the air.

He nodded, and then turned and in only moments was sprinting away down the street, metal-plated boots tapping the pavement in a steady rhythm.

-TT-

"Are you getting this?" the redhead asked incredulously, eyes scanning the screen.

"I don't see how I couldn't," came the voice on the other end of the line sarcastically, through a filter of static and white noise.

"X'hal…" she breathed, staring at the computer. "At this rate it's going be the size of a building by nightfall. And by morning it'll dwarf Tyrants Tower."

"What will?"

Komand'r swiveled in her chair to see a black and gray-clad figure leaning casually against the doorframe, wearing no mask, just a lopsided cocky grin. "Hey X." she greeted warmly. She crossed her arms and leaned back in her seat. "Didn't know you were back in town."

The vigilante known to her as X—he'd long since dropped the 'Red' from his name and scrubbed any trace of the color from his pilfered suit, as well as redesigned the mask—gave a shrug, pushing off the frame and coming into the room. "A guy's gotta come home and crash sometime." He grabbed the seat next to her, pulling it out and settling into it comfortably. "So what's up, cutie?" he asked, pillowing his arms behind his head and putting his feet up on the control panel.

Komand'r rolled back to her station. "There's some kind of interdimensional rift forming at Tyrants Tower."

That piqued his attention. "Really?"

The Tamaranian pointed at the screen. "Take a look."

X put his feet down, rolled his chair over and peered at the readouts. "Huh. What are the kiddies up to this time?" he wondered.

The open com channel crackled, static muddling the voice a bit, though not fully disguising the deadpan tone. "From what I can tell, causing no small amount of wanton destruction and chaos in this reality."

"Double S? That you?" X said, straightening in his seat in recognition. "Wow, the Brotherhood's communicators have _really_ good reception." He nudged Komand'r's arm playfully with his shoulder. "You should hook me up with one sometime," he suggested, winking one hazel eye at her.

She smiled, but shook her head. "That's not my call, handsome. It's Dr. Light's. You know that."

Pouting, he slouched in his chair. "So I do." He glanced towards the door. "Speak of the devil…"

Kimiyo Hoshi, Dr. Light herself, stood just outside the room, frowning in disapproval at him.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded irritably.

X fixed her with an innocent smile. "Dropping in to visit my favorite superhero team, of course," he told her.

She was unmoved by his flattery. "You need more xenothium don't you?"

"That too," he admitted.

Dr. Light proceeded to ignore his presence, crossing over and taking one of the computer terminals for herself. "Keep your hands off the synthesizer cables," she warned him sternly. "We're running short and we don't have any more to spare." She sent a brief glare his way. "I _know_ you're the one who's been stealing them."

The vigilante's face was unreadable. "I will admit nothing and I deny all evidence."

"Of course you do." Dr. Light adjusted the open com channel, slipping a headset on over her ear to filter out some of the static. "Swordstroke, report. What's it look like on your end?"

"The rift is about ten… fifteen meters across, I estimate. It's starting to become a lot more noticeable. One doesn't have to squint to see it anymore," he replied. There was a pause as he checked something. "And… it's giving off a lot more energy."

"Not just energy," Dr. Light said, tapping buttons on the control panel and bringing up readouts on her screen. "Psimon's been complaining about extra psychic noise."

Komand'r's brows lowered skeptically. "What, is he hearing the thoughts of people from that other universe?" the Tamaranian princess asked skeptically.

Dr. Light said nothing, but the expression in her eyes as she scanned the readouts confirmed everything. Komand'r stared, incredulous.

"Okay, that's a little _too_ freaky," she said.

X nodded in agreement, craning his neck to look past Komand'r and read the data Dr. Light was sifting through. The Brotherhood member had paused on one of the readouts and was studying it intently. She squinted, and then frowned.

"The buildings are leaning."

X started at that. "What?"

"What?" chimed Komand'r, getting up from her seat and looking over Dr. Light's shoulder.

She pointed at a diagram. "The Needle, Wayne Tower, they're all tilting about one point five degrees more to the left. Towards the bay and our unexplained rift at the Tyrants' HQ."

"Well, that doesn't sound good," X said flatly, understating the matter with a heaping dose of sarcasm.

"It's not," Dr. Light confirmed, pushing back a bit in her chair and staring at the computer screen, eyes darkened with deep concern as she watched the scrolling data.

-TT-

The heavy curtain of shimmering air stretched ominously over Tyrants Tower, like a strange sun rising over the horizon. It didn't seem to be moving at first glance, but the longer one stared, the more aware of its growth and expansion one became. Head on, it was like looking at the beginning infant swirls of a whirlpool. The tattered edges radiated out from the center as cracks on a windshield, reaching higher and higher into the air.

And the atmosphere of fear that pervaded Jump City rose with it, as people's eyes were drawn to the expanding portal, as they watched it and wondered just what on earth was going on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hee. So yeah, I couldn't quite resist sticking Tyrantverse versions of Blackfire and Red X in there. I suppose technically she shouldn't be called "Komand'r" since Evil Starfire is Blackfire but whatever, I'm going to handwave that and just say in the Tyrantverse the Tamaranian translation is opposite what it is in the normal universe, so Komand'r means Starfire and Koriand'r means Blackfire. Or something.
> 
> ...I think I just confused myself.
> 
> Anyway, speaking of Starfire, I definitely had fun writing her being the only one to actually win her battle. I figured since she's fighting herself-and Tempest-she doesn't need to pull her punches and she can go all out and just lay a smackdown on them. When Starfire goes hardcore, you're pretty much completely screwed. (As opposed to being only mostly screwed when you tick off Raven, since she tends to lose her focus and get a little tunnel-visioned in demon mode. So you have a slim chance of saving yourself if you catch her off-guard or from the side. Slim.)


	10. Hidden

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The genre-savvy among you will likely have already guessed the twist (I've left enough clues for it), but I hope you still enjoy the chapter anyway.
> 
> Once again, I had enormous fun writing Red Raven.

A flutter and swish of air above signaled that Beast Boy was swooping down for a landing. Raven huddled inside her cloak, gazing down at the pebbly asphalt of the roof as her mind scanned ahead, searching for unwanted presences. Aside from a few anxious civilians in the building below, she could sense no one.

Beast Boy's boots scraped the rooftop as he landed, and Raven raised her face and tilted her body to face him.

"No sign of them yet?" she guessed.

The changeling pointed off towards the city outskirts. "The scent's all over the place," he told her. "I think Evil Robin and Evil Speedy must've zigzagged a lot to throw me off their trail. Heads roughly that way though." He lowered his arm. "I'm guessing you haven't found them yet either?"

Raven shook her head, withdrawing her senses back into herself for now. "Nothing clear. I think they're out of my range," she said. She sighed and put a hand to her forehead. "That or my headache's screwing up my concentration. I wouldn't be surprised if it was."

"Want a nice relaxing massage?" Beast Boy offered cheerfully, once again. "That seemed to help last time," he reminded her.

"Not right now," she dismissed.

Beast Boy stuck his lower lip out and frowned. "Man…" he groaned. "Come on, I _hate_ seeing you miserable. Can't you let me do _something_ that'll cheer you up?"

The empath racked her brain, her face twisting in chagrin. Beast Boy was trying _so_ earnestly hard to be a good boyfriend to her…

"Tell me a lame joke?" she suggested helplessly.

The changeling rubbed his chin for a moment, then snapped his fingers, his expression lighting up. "Oooh, oooh! I got one! Why did the witch have to repeat a year of sorcery school?"

Raven half-heartedly supplied the expected, "Why?"

"Because she failed her final hex-am!" Beast Boy delivered jovially.

The pun brought to mind a mental image of Jinx in a purple witch's cap, and Raven chuckled, in spite of herself.

Beast Boy beamed broadly. "That's better!" His elation at finally managing to cheer her mood soon faded, however, along with her smile. _Something's __**really**__ up with her,_ he thought. _This is way too gloomy, even for her. _He grew serious, his voice concerned. "Raven," he called, "is everything all right? You've been really weird since we fought the Tyrants and you've like barely looked at me the past half-hour." His face scrunched and his voice grew small. "Did I do something wrong?"

"What?" Raven blurted, snapping from the stupor she'd fallen into. She quickly realized what Beast Boy had asked. "No! No no, it's not anything you did at all," she hastened to assure him. "I'm just…" Her face fell. She stared at the roof again. "…I'm a little shaken right now," she confessed.

"Was it the fight with Evil You?" Beast Boy asked. "Did something happen?" His eyes widened a bit. "Did she hurt you? You didn't like absorb her essence or anything did you? She's not trapped inside you corrupting your soul from within is she?" The changeling grew a little more panicky with every question.

"Nothing like that," Raven reassured him. "But…" She trailed off, falling silent.

Beast Boy bit his lip, shifting his balance from foot to foot impatiently as he waited for her to speak again.

After a long moment, she finally did.

"She threatened the Titans," she said at last. Her violet eyes flicked up to him. "She threatened you. And I just… _lost_ it."

"So… you went glowy and demonic on her?" Beast Boy guessed.

Raven nodded, gave a sigh and a heavy shudder. "And she could… manipulate me somehow, mess with my emotions," she added. "She _made_ me feel angry. It was like… like all my mental walls and self-control didn't even exist. It scared me." Her voice dropped to barely a whisper. She hugged herself tightly underneath her cloak. "I was afraid," she told him.

"Dude…" Beast Boy breathed, standing dumbly at her revelation. "She could mess with your emotions? That's really creepy."

She turned to him suddenly, grabbing a fistful of the front of his shirt. "Beast Boy, what if… what if I have the same ability? What if I can force people's emotions like that too?" she asked, frantic and fearful.

The changeling put his hands on her shoulders, squeezing her arms gently. "You'd never do that, even if you knew how. I _know _you wouldn't, Raven."

"I could do it by accident," Raven said miserably, remembering the night she'd created a menagerie of frightening creatures that had terrorized the Titans until morning, due to her suppressing the fear she'd felt after the scary movie they had watched. "Maybe I've already done it."

"Woah, hey!" Beast Boy interrupted, giving her a slight shake to stop her self-pitying monologue. "I know where your brain is going with this. Don't go there." He flashed her a warm, genuine smile. "I like you, Raven. I like you a lot, and I've liked you for a long time. And it's not because you somehow made me like you." His hands drifted forward to capture hers and he squeezed them affectionately. "Trust me, my feelings are real. I know."

_How would you even be able to tell?_ the pessimistic side of her droned inside her head. But Raven felt the sincerity in his voice and saw the affection in his eyes and knew that he spoke the truth.

He loved her, of his own free volition.

She exhaled in relief, reaching to grip him tightly again. He wrapped his arms around her for a moment, but after a while his face grimaced and he tried ineffectually to tug himself away.

"Uh, Raven?" he said, voice slightly raspy. "Squeezing… a little too hard."

She let go, mumbling a sorry. Beast Boy tilted back, off-balance. He slid an arm around her shoulders once he'd regained his feet.

"So, I'm guessing I should probably stay away from your evil twin huh?" he joked.

Raven's expression didn't twitch. "Definitely. As much as you can at least," the empath said dryly. She shuddered again. "I wouldn't mind never facing her again myself." Raven shook her head. "She's like everything I'm afraid of becoming. Everything opposite who I'm trying to be."

"Kind of the idea behind an _evil_ twin," Beast Boy pointed out.

She rolled her eyes, a welcome sign to him.

"Come on," she told him, gesturing them forward with her hand. "Let's keep looking. They can't be too much further," she said, more to herself than to him as she formed a disk beneath their feet.

"I hope the others aren't having our crummy luck," Beast Boy commented, as she lifted them up and flew them off over the sunset-lit rooftops.

-TT-

Hidden under the struts of an overpass for the moment, he cast a wary glance to his left, towards the shimmering, towering portal, his eyes narrowed and serious.

"Are you sure?" he asked into the communicator held up to his face.

"Positive," came the voice of Dr. Light. "The Tower, the bay, the buildings, air molecules… everything's being steadily drawn in towards the portal. And the rate of acceleration is increasing exponentially with every minute," she said grimly.

"So what does that mean for us?" he wondered aloud.

"Our sim models calculate we're looking at a possible class one Crisis-level event in about…" There was a brief pause as she checked the figures. "…twelve hours."

He gave a weary sigh and cursed under his breath. "Well, that doesn't give us a whole lot of time, does it?" he said dryly. More seriously, hiking the communicator a little higher, he asked, "What are our options?"

"First priority is closing that portal," she told him.

"Naturally."

"Of course, even that is easier said than done." Dr. Light paused a moment, listening to something he couldn't hear. "I've got Psimon at the opening on this side right now… He says he feels Red Raven's psychic residue in the portal's structure. He thinks only she can close it, or someone with her abilities. He's tried, but he can't do it."

He glanced towards the portal. "Color me surprised," he snarked.

Even from across the distance of space and time, he could feel a faint flutter of annoyance from Psimon, the telepath mentally telegraphing his displeasure straight to the man's brain. It was weak, but the fact that he could feel it at all meant nothing good.

"I'm trying to contact Chronos right now, and I'm calling in all the reserve members who have teleportation or space/time travel related powers," Dr. Light continued.

"But who knows if they'll have any better luck." He looked back at Titans Tower, glittering gray and orange against the early evening sky, a strange mirror of the one back in their universe. His mouth twisted in resignation. "I might need to hunt down Red Raven and the Tyrants and make them close the portal from here."

There was a pause on the other end. "Is that… entirely wise?" she asked. He could hear the trepidation in her voice.

"I won't have much of a choice, will I?" He let out a long breath, full of aggravation and weariness. "I suppose I can't count on reinforcements?" he guessed.

"No. Any more travel between the worlds could make things worse," Dr. Light told him. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to do the best you can on your own. Unless…" She paused, thinking. "Will you make contact with the Tyrants of that world, the Teen Titans?"

He grimaced. "I'd prefer not to, if I can avoid it. Bad blood, you know."

After a long pause she sighed. "Be careful," she cautioned. "And for the love of heaven _don't_ dismember anyone."

"Don't worry. I'll make sure the brats come out of the fight and back to our reality… _mostly _unscathed," he reassured her, clicking the button to disconnect before she could protest. He stowed away his communicator, took one more look towards the portal, and moved out from under the overpass, quickly fading into the shadowed alleyways of Jump City.

-TT-

"See anything?" Red Raven hissed over his shoulder.

Arsenal peered out the grungy window at the street below. Red Robin and Blackfire's second-story apartment hideout offered an excellent view of both corners and the alleyway, no surprise considering Red Robin's caution and paranoia.

The streets below were empty for the moment. No sign of the Titans, or anyone from their dimension. Arsenal let the curtain drop back over the glass, covering it.

"Nope," he reported. "Street's clear."

The demoness jerked her head towards Cyber-Vile, sitting at the desk in the corner, his bulk squeezed rather awkwardly into the small chair. "What about you, Cy? Picking up any unfriendly visitors?"

Cyber-Vile stirred from the repairs he was making to his electronic eye lens, detached fully now and on the desk in front of him. "Negative," he told her. "No life readings other than ours, and that of the current residents of the building, for at least thirty feet in all directions."

"I don't hear or smell anyone unusual either!" Changeling put in helpfully. He was perched on all fours on the edge of the couch, alert and oddly chipper.

Tempest, meanwhile, was leaning sullenly on the wall near the window, and Red Robin and Blackfire were cautiously walking up to Red Raven, having just fetched her mirror from the room safe.

Red Raven nodded once tersely, in satisfaction. "Good. Keep an eye out, all of you," she instructed. She ran her fingers up through her short-cropped pink hair, tugging on the roots in more than a little aggravation, and gave a long, tired exhale. "If Stab-Happy finds us on top of everything else, that will just be the cherry atop the disaster sundae this day has been," she muttered to herself.

Red Robin and Blackfire exchanged an uncomfortable glance, guilt written all over their features. And a little bit of fear. They could tell Red Raven was a hairpin trigger away from exploding once more into demonic rage. The Tyrants had been walking on eggshells around her ever since they'd met back up, barely saying anything lest they risk setting her off. Rather reluctantly, Red Robin made an attempt at civil conversation.

"You sound worried," he said, extending his arm to hand over the mirror.

"_You're _the one that should be worried!" she snapped as she spun on her heels and snatched it from him, making everyone in the room flinch. Red Raven cradled the mirror in her hands a moment before tucking the handle into her belt. "Thanks to you, now we're stuck here in this miserable dimension. We've got enemies on our trail. Our tech support is fried." She jabbed a finger towards the corner to indicate Cyber-Vile. "And if _that_ wasn't enough I think my headache has gotten worse. And it's _all. Your. Fault._" Her pink eyes glared daggers at him. "I'm still debating whether or not to kill you," she told him frankly, with all seriousness.

Blackfire edged a little closer to Red Robin's side, nervously inserting herself between the two. Arsenal and Tempest, meanwhile, suddenly found the curtain hanging over the window very interesting.

"Look, I _said_ I was sorry!" Red Robin said, exasperated, throwing his arms out helplessly. What more did she want from him?

"Not as sorry as you're going to be," Red Raven growled dangerously, a faint red aura starting to flicker around her.

Alarmed, Blackfire stepped in front of Red Robin to shield him and held out her hands plaintively. "Red Raven, please, you must calm—"

The demoness flicked her hand and Blackfire squeaked in terror as a crescent of crimson energy smacked her away and slammed her into the apartment wall.

The whole room shook with the blow. Everyone jumped, even the normally unflappable Cyber-Vile, and Arsenal and Tempest immediately rushed to Blackfire's side, calling her name.

"_Easy_ Raven!" Tempest said, kneeling down by the dazed Tamaranian. "You could've broken her back with that!"

"She'll be fine," Red Raven grunted, not taking her eyes off her target.

Heart pounding, Red Robin tensed for battle and took up a fighting stance. But Red Raven didn't move, just bored her glare into him. He waited for a blow, a shove, something physical, but he realized she had something more sinister in mind when he felt his insides shift and his skin flush and prickle with some strange emotion stirring up in him as he gazed at—

He didn't think, just reacted, recoiling, _pushing_ Red Raven out of his head and shoving up the mental walls he'd developed over the years to keep her empathic influence at bay.

"Don't you _dare,_" he hissed, gritting his teeth.

"You want me to stay out of your head?" she snarled. "Then you should've stayed out of my room."

Her eyes glowed red. Her mind clashed with Red Robin's as she tried to exert her will over his. His face twisted, his eyes closed tight and he struggled back against her probing invasion like it was a physical weight pushing him down.

Blackfire clutched at Arsenal's arm for support as she watched helplessly, making Arsenal grimace as her grip squeezed him like an iron vice.

"Please Red Raven… we do not have the time—" she begged.

"Shut up," Red Raven cut her off.

She curled into herself meekly, caving before the demoness's anger. Tempest calmly put a hand on her shoulder. When she turned her wide-eyed face up to him he just shook his head, silently cautioning her not to interfere.

Red Raven stood rooted to the spot like a strong tower as Red Robin trembled in front of her. Shifting her balance slightly she called, "Changeling?"

The shape-shifter had been scratching himself behind the ears in dog form, but started and shifted back to human at that, his leg still lifted awkwardly.

"Why don't you go outside and stand guard? Sniff around the building?" Red Raven said, her voice eerily calm and sweet. "You _don't_ want to watch this, trust me."

The changeling looked back and forth between Red Raven and the door. "Uh… okay. I'll take your word for it," he warbled fearfully. He at once became a rat and hopped down to the floor, skittering away and morphing into a snake to slide neatly under the crack in the door.

Tempest took that as a convenient excuse to make himself scarce as well. "I, uh… I just remembered, I need to submerge myself in the bathtub. To keep from drying out," he said, crossing over to the bathroom and shutting himself in at once.

"I need to, uh… go with Changeling," Arsenal lied, nearly tripping over himself in his haste to get to the door. He left it swinging open behind him.

Torn for a moment, Blackfire glanced towards the exit, then towards Red Robin as he staggered back, starting to crumble under the pressure Red Raven was putting on him. In the end she just fell weak-kneed into the wall behind her, legs curling up to her chest as she wrapped her arms around herself protectively and stayed put.

Red Raven slid a glance over to the corner. "Cyber-Vile? You're free to leave too, if you want."

The half-robot was intently focused on his repairs, but replied, "No need. I will simply turn off my auditory systems."

A creepy grin made its way onto Red Raven's face. She waved a hand to shut and lock the apartment door. The _click_ as the bolt shot home reverberated like a pulse of doom. Blackfire shivered.

"Then let's have a refresher on why you don't want to cross me, shall we?" Red Raven said in a cheery singsong as the room darkened.

A blunt telekinetic ball bowled into him, tilting him wildly off-balance. Surprised by the hit, Red Robin's concentration slipped a little bit, and that was all Red Raven needed to start worming her way inside. Red Robin cried out as though in pain, clutching his hands over his head as he dropped to his knees.

"Stop…" he gasped, feeling the familiar sensation of her hateful mental touch pulling at his emotional strings. Desperately he envisioned his mind as a fortress with high stone walls, drawing on all his training from his villainous mentor.

"You can't keep me out forever," Red Raven said casually, bloodred tendrils siphoning out from her fingers and curling towards the boy on the floor.

Blackfire hid her face.

-TT-

The Tamaranian kept her hands clamped tight over her ears the whole time, as she huddled with her face towards the wall, whimpering occasionally, until Red Robin's screams finally stopped. She had never liked this… watching as Red Raven twisted someone's emotions inside out, and the fact that it was the boy she loved the demoness was doing it to this time made it all the worse. He'd held out for a while (he was the only one Blackfire knew who could resist Red Raven like that), but in the end Red Raven was simply too powerful.

Even after everything was silent, Blackfire couldn't force herself to move. She was paralyzed by dread, thinking that any moment she would be next.

But the light levels restored themselves to normal, the door clicked to unlock, and Red Raven's footsteps paced away from her, towards the window.

Slowly, Blackfire uncovered her head.

Red Raven looked much happier, peeking out the window with a satisfied smile on her face. Cyber-Vile was almost finished with his eye lens; he'd reattached it to the loose wires dangling from his socket and was making final adjustments, soldering the copper ends in place with a tiny finger tool. Red Robin sat quietly with his arms around his knees, staring blankly at the floor. He didn't appear hurt, just numb and solemn. Blackfire peeled herself off the wall and crawled over to him at once.

He stirred slightly when she put a worried hand to his cheek.

"'m all right," he mumbled.

Shuddering in mild relief, she just wrapped her arms around him and pulled him to her bosom, petting his hair comfortingly.

The running water in the bathroom shut off a few seconds later. Dull dripping could be heard behind the door and then the knob squealed and turned and Tempest poked his head out, his hair wet and slack around his face.

"Is it over?" he asked.

Red Raven looked over her shoulder at him, brushing a short strand of hair behind her ear with a calm smile. "I'm satisfied," she told him cheerfully. "Tell Arsenal and Changeling they can come back in. We need to discuss what to do next."

"Roger that," Tempest acknowledged, grabbing a towel off the rack on the inside wall and rubbing it through his short-cropped hair as he exited the bathroom and crossed to the front door.

Quiet reigned for a few moments after the hydrokinetic left. Red Raven stretched her arms above her head lazily. Cyber-Vile carefully fit his eye back into its socket, and snapped it back in place. Blackfire drew gentle circles on the bare parts of Red Robin's head with her fingers.

The boy leaned against her, with his ear resting on her chest plate, eyes closed, breathing softly. He felt drained, almost dead inside. Red Raven hadn't been too kind in her anger. This hadn't been his first demon-induced emotional wringer (Red Raven had lashed out with her empathic powers at all of them at one point or another, and sometimes she just liked to screw around with their feelings for the sheer mean fun of it), but it was definitely one of the worst. He almost didn't feel like he was _capable_ of feeling emotions again.

Even as the thought passed through his mind, a choked sob rose up his throat. It came out in a muffled squeal as Red Robin forced it down, tramping on the sudden swell of wretched misery that threatened to flood him. After a moment the emotion simmered, turning into bitter anger and resentment, and Red Robin felt more like himself again.

_Great. So she didn't completely destroy my ability to feel, then._

Blackfire had clutched him a little tighter at the pitiful sound he'd made. Turning to look over his head at Red Raven she chided, "You did not have to do that."

"He'll recover," Red Raven dismissed. "I'm not _completely_ heartless, you know."

"Some of us would beg to differ," Red Robin growled under his breath. He shook himself, stirring, rising to his feet as he pushed Blackfire away gently. She hovered close to him, but he just crossed his arms and glared at Red Raven churlishly. "You know we _had_ stolen a birthday present for you while we were here but I don't think we'll give it to you now," he said.

"It's cute that you think I care," the demoness shot back. Then, hypocritically, she faced Blackfire and asked, "So where is it?"

Blackfire straightened. "Shall I fetch it for you?" she offered helpfully, ever eager to please.

"Please do," Red Raven told her, ignoring the scowl Red Robin sent her as he went and sat on the couch and sulked.

The alien princess zipped back to the wall safe and fetched their pile of jewels, then brought it over to Red Raven. Pearls and loose gemstones dropped from her hands as she floated. She deposited the stash in one of the ratty sofa chairs and Red Raven spent a moment admiring the gems. She and Blackfire gushed and cooed over the ruby ring and bracelet and Red Raven tried them on proudly.

"Okay," she said, gazing in appreciation at the way the ring shone on her finger. "I think I can bring myself to forgive you two now."

"How gracious of you," muttered Red Robin from his place on the couch.

She flipped him the bird as Tempest, Arsenal, and Changeling rejoined them, entering the room with little fanfare. The shape-shifter was lightly covered in soot from a fireplace he'd dug around in and shook off a cloud of tiny flecks of ash as he stopped at the threshold.

Red Raven pulled herself upright. "All right kiddos," she said, "any thoughts on where to go from here? I can't open a door back to our universe without an extra electromagnetic boost."

"Well…" considered Blackfire. "We still have the portal ripper that Cyber-Vile gave us." She glanced to the cyborg. "Perhaps we may go home that way?"

Cyber-Vile was scanning over the readouts in his arm. "Statement: That would not be wise. Further analysis of the spacial-temporal rip subjects Red Robin and Blackfire made to enter this dimension has shown the device's effects to be much more unstable and adverse than initially thought. In any case it would still require the use of a calibration device to dial in to the quantum molecular frequency of our home universe," he reported, glancing up briefly at Red Raven.

Red Raven drew back, covering the mirror in her belt with her hands protectively. "Like _hell_ you're using my mirror again," she growled.

"Calculations show a 45.77% decrease in risk if you were to do the calibrations," Cyber-Vile told her impassively. "Since you are clearly reluctant, however..."

"Why don't we just grab another electromagnetic generator from this world?" Arsenal suggested. "They look like they've got the same general technology level as we do. I'll bet there's labs all over the place with high-tech stuff we could use."

"Of course with that option there's the risk of running into our friend from the Brotherhood of Justice, or our goody-goody counterparts again," Red Robin piped up. "A break-in at a tech facility doesn't exactly scream 'subtle' or 'low-profile'."

"We don't have a whole lot of other choices," Tempest said. "If Cy says the portal ripper _you_ used is too risky then I definitely prefer the less-risky tried-and-true method _we_ used."

"It's settled then," Red Raven concluded. She crossed her arms, levitating up a few inches. "Arsenal, Tempest, Robin—"

"I'm not up for another fight with the Titans," Red Robin interrupted tersely. "And I'm not setting foot outside while _he's_ lurking around somewhere."

Red Raven simmered. "Fine," she said through her teeth. "You can help Cyber-Vile look up tech labs around the city. Arsenal and Tempest, you go get what we need. Try to be quiet about it. No explosions," she warned them.

Arsenal made a discontented face. "Aww, you're no fun!" he complained, as he shouldered his crossbow and turned to go back out, followed by Tempest.

The demoness flicked her eyes to Blackfire. "You'd better go with them, to make sure they behave."

Blackfire nodded. She paused a moment before the door, taking a long look back at Red Robin. She was uncertain whether or not she felt comfortable leaving him.

He'd risen from the couch and gone over to the corner with Cyber-Vile, though, and was currently flipping open the laptop he'd snatched from one of the other rooms. (The occupant had been out when they'd broken into it, looking for things to make their own room more comfortable.) Blackfire's nerves settled and she drifted out the door after her teammates.

Changeling, on all fours as usual, looked around in confusion, slightly lost. "What about me?" he asked, expression slightly put out. "What do I do?"

Red Raven curled herself into a lotus position in midair, lazily lifting up a magazine from the table with her powers and bringing it to her hands. "Whatever you want," she told him. "Just don't over-exert yourself. That cut on your back is pretty nasty."

He shrugged. "Ah, I've had worse," he dismissed, promptly morphing into a Rottweiler, pouncing on the couch and proceeding to destroy one of the pillows with his teeth.

-TT-

The light dimmed all around him as the sun slipped slowly behind the horizon. The western sky was dull orange, and the city's streetlights were just starting to come on.

In the gathering dusk, Cyborg found it increasingly harder to see. Normally he would compensate with his electronic eye, but due to the interference from the portal and the fact that he was still recovering from the EMP, his visual readout wasn't exactly reliable.

_I might need to just throw in the towel and go home,_ he thought grimly to himself.

Fortunately his human eye adjusted to the darkness after a few moments, and he was able to see a little better. He kept his arm out, scanning for the Tyrants, or anything else unusual.

It was a long, tedious walk. The streets were emptying, as people went home for the night, so Cyborg rarely encountered anyone at all, much less their evil counterparts. He reported in on the half-hour, as instructed, to learn that the other Titans were having similar problems tracking the Tyrants. Robin admonished them all to keep looking, and wearily the Titans signed off and resumed their search.

Cyborg's feet were beginning to kill him. But he kept on walking, wary, on the alert for unusual activity.

The last vestiges of sunlight were fading from the sky when Cyborg finally decided he wasn't getting anywhere in his search, and wasn't likely to anytime soon. Grumbling, he turned off his arm for a moment, losing himself in his thoughts.

He stirred, abruptly changing directions, and headed back towards the portal at Fifth. He might as well check on it, since it was clear the Tyrants hadn't come this direction.

Before he even got to the intersection he could see it shimmering and stretching over the tops of the buildings. He stood there and gaped a moment. A faint eerie glow seemed to be emanating from the rift, making the portal visible like soft cloud cover against the night sky.

Cyborg shook himself from his stupor and made his way over. Their police friend was still there, with several others, cordoning off the street for at least three blocks in all directions now. Cyborg approached them, his eyes on the portal, watching it trepidatiously as it warped and drifted. It was almost parallel with the street now, facing one of the apartment buildings to his left.

"Oh thank _stars_ you're back, finally!" the beat cop exclaimed, looking immensely relieved at the Titan's presence. "Where ya been all day?"

The half-robot peeled his eyes off the portal and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "It's uh… it's been a busy afternoon," he said. "Sorry I couldn't check back with y'all earlier Officer…?"

"Johnson, sir."

"Johnson." Cyborg committed the name and the face to memory. "Thanks for keeping everyone back from this thing."

"No problem."

"Any idea what it is yet?" asked another officer.

The Titan gave a grimace. "Would you believe that evil alternate versions of Robin and Starfire crossed over from another universe and left that big ol' hole between dimensions?"

There was awkward dead silence for a moment.

"I've seen weirder," grunted an older cop from the side.

"Right, well, that looks like what happened," Cyborg explained. "We're still not quite sure _how_ they did it, just that it's left a mess." The half-robot lifted his arm again, bringing his scanner back up and taking some new readings to compare against his last analysis. "I wish I could tell you more, but… I honestly have no clue what's going on with that thing right now, or how to fix it." He tried to step closer to the portal. But as soon as he faced it, a wall of interference blanked out his cybernetics, causing glitches and malfunctions all throughout his systems. "Ow! What the—?" He staggered back, shaking his head. After a few moments the glitching diminished save for the occasional odd buzz and flicker. "And the electromagnetic interference it's giving off is makin' it impossible for me to get a good reading on it," he added, scowling.

"Should we get other people lookin' at it?" asked Johnson.

"That'd help," grunted Cyborg.

The officers conferred with each other a moment, radioing in to the station. Cyborg waited while they had a long conversation with their higher-ups, no doubt appraising them of the situation.

"We'll get the eyes of Jump's best scientists on it right away," promised Johnson at last, when they were finished talking.

"Thanks," said Cyborg, glancing at the man gratefully. "Tell them to email the Tower with their findings. The more data I have, the more I'll know about what this is doing and how to stop it."

He sent an uneasy look up at the portal.

"_If_ we can stop it…" he muttered under his breath.

-TT-

Starfire floated high above the city, the chilly night air pricking her skin. She was hoping a higher vantage point would help her spot potential signs of the Tyrants' trail more easily.

She stopped her ascent and just drifted for a moment, turning slowly in place. Though she could see nearly the whole of Jump City from this high up, she still had to study each block carefully, looking for clues.

There was Jump City State Penitentiary, fewer lights than normal on inside, thanks to the rampage by Blackfire and Red Robin. There was the ice cream shop she and Robin had stopped in, before any of this had gone down. Robin's motorcycle was still there, she realized in a flash, still parked in front of the shop where they'd left it. It had lockdown defenses that would prevent its theft, but she figured she might as well remind Robin where it was the next time she reported in. She knew how tunnel-visioned he could get during a mission, knew how he sometimes could overlook things like that.

Starfire kept turning, scanning the city. Her mind was wandering. She tried to keep focused but she couldn't help thinking about her battle with her other self. She kept seeing Blackfire's wild gray eyes, full of a cruel glee, in her mind. She shivered.

_How could there be a reality where I am like that? Ecstatic at the suffering of others, happy to cause trouble and chaos?_

The idea seemed so alien to her… and yet not completely so. For there had been times in her stay on Earth, many times, in the heat of battle thrill or an adrenaline-fueled charge, that she'd just felt... limited. Her warrior upbringing pounded on her conscience, urging her to take recompense against the party that had wronged her. There were some days where her righteous fury slipped easily into anger and she wanted nothing more than to let that carry her into violence. She had to remind herself to hold back, to show mercy, to be compassionate. She had to think on the Tamaranian warrior code which, while allowing for great displays of emotion and encouraged giving everything to the battle, still had its limits.

Destruction just for destruction's sake was not honorable. Damages could and would occur, but Tamaranian culture preferred it to be incidental, accidental, and for the sake of some greater purpose. (For her especially, it was nearly always about ending a fight with a powerful opponent quickly, or defending herself from the same.) Breaking things just to break them, just for the sense of power it gave them... There were some on Tamaran who had that mindset, she had to admit. There were individuals who missed half the teachings of warrior philosophy, used the code as an excuse to be a bully and a thug who reveled in victory against a weaker opponent, prized their own glory and battle prowess above all else.

Suppose there was a Tamaran where that misinterpretation was instead the majority? Where her people were more like the stereotypical "primitive, uncultured ruffians" a large portion of the galaxy in this reality believed them to be? Suppose there was a Tamaran that valued conquest more than righteous battle?

_I suppose, in a world like that, it would certainly be possible for a version of me to exist that relished endangering innocents._

After all, if _she_ could occasionally be tempted towards the more brutish parts of her nature, how much more so someone like Blackfire? Starfire understood how intoxicating the emotional high of battle was. How, in the heat of the moment, things blurred and the mind clouded, and there was nothing but passion and vigor and strength. Starfire couldn't help but admit to herself that she enjoyed the feeling. And she wondered how much different the delight of causing chaos was for Blackfire.

It was a sobering notion. Blackfire wasn't her, but Starfire could see how easily she could become her. And the thought made her uneasy, and more than a little frightened. If circumstances had been different, could she have turned out like the Teen Tyrant? Would she have been a villain?

_No,_ she decided. _I could not have gone down that path._ She couldn't speak for her other self, but she knew her own heart, and knew that though she was certainly capable of evil, she would struggle against those impulses with everything she had in her. Whether one was a hero or a villain was determined by one's choices, not their circumstances. _And I will never let myself become like her,_ she determined, her will hardening that choice into iron the moment she thought it.

And if her own strength failed, well, that was what her friends were for. That's what the Titans did for each other; pulled each other back from the brink, kept each other from going too far, falling too fast.

The Titans would always catch her in time.

Her inner anxieties relieved, Starfire turned her attention back to the more pressing worry of finding the Tyrants.

There honestly wasn't that much to see from this height, especially in the dark. Disappointed, Starfire twisted around to drop back to a lower altitude and resume her search pattern.

She paused a moment as she glimpsed the shimmering apparition that was the portal from the Tyrants' world. She squinted. Her view of the city seemed to blur around the rift, and no matter how many times she blinked, it refused to come into sharper focus.

She supposed that was yet another thing she would have to mention to the others when she made her scheduled check-in. As it was getting close to that point, she slipped her communicator out of her pocket and held it in her hand as she drifted above the darkened rooftops and the weak orange glow of the streetlights.

-TT-

When his communicator clicked on the half-hour, Robin pulled it out with one hand as he swung down from a construction crane onto a low building.

"Any luck yet?" he asked, dropping down to the rooftop.

"Not yet," Raven replied. "But Beast Boy thinks we're getting close."

There was an affirmative bark in the background.

"The scent's starting to dissipate, though," Raven added as a pessimistic afterthought. "I don't know how much longer we'll be able to follow it."

"Starfire, how about you?" Robin asked, glancing off down the street as a lone car rumbled past.

"Thus far I have had little success," she reported with a sigh. She relayed to him what she'd seen and noticed before concluding, "I do not believe they came this way, Robin."

_Thought so_, Robin mused to himself. He'd run over the layout of the city in his mind several times, trying to deduct the most logical place for the Tyrants to hide. In every scenario he pictured, northwards was always the least likely direction for them to take. Straightening, he inquired, "Where are you now?"

"Above the store of the groceries at Roosevelt."

"Okay. Keep going for now. If you reach the suburbs without finding anything, meet up with Raven and Beast Boy," he instructed.

"Understood."

Cyborg entered the conversation. "Robin," he said, "I might need to head back to the Tower and run a system check and a debugging. I don't think I'm operating at full capacity right now." His voice seemed worn, even through the filter of static on the channel. "And I want to take a look at that portal with the Titans mainframe."

Robin's brows wrinkled in concern. "Is it bigger?" he guessed.

"Yeah, and it's starting to worry me."

"All right, Cyborg. Go ahead." Robin looked up at the empty street, shadowed save for the circles of light from the streetlamps. "No sign of them here," he told the Titans. "I'll head for the warehouse district and—"

The communicator bleeped, the screen turning red and scrolling text.

"Wait a second."

Robin's eyes scanned over the text. He tapped a button and brought up a map display, which automatically zoomed in on a specific grid and flashed a red warning icon.

"I just got an alert for Sector 34. The WayneTech branch there just reported a break-in. Could be our evil doubles."

"We're close to there," Raven relayed, no doubt checking over the map on her end. "We'll go ahead and check it out."

The Boy Wonder assessed the distance to jump, then took a running start off the building, leaping down to the next rooftop. "I'll meet you there. Don't engage unless its one of the Tyrants. For now, they're our top priority. Let anyone else go," he ordered.

"Even if it's someone easy?" Raven asked.

"The Tyrants are more important right now," Robin reiterated.

"If you say so…" the empath muttered.

"Robin out."

He disconnected and stowed the device, never stumbling as he made his way over the squat quiet buildings of this section of the city.

The night deepened. Stars flickered faintly out from the blackish sky, the light haze of the city only dimly screening them from sight. A thin chill prickled his skin. There was no wind, but the air rushing past him as he sprinted ruffled through his hair and rustled his cape behind him. For a long while there was no sound save his breath and the pounding of his steel-toed boots on the asphalt and concrete.

He neared the tech sector. Robin flipped down to a parked truck and from there spring-boarded off and hit the street running. He knew the route to Jump City's installation of Wayne Enterprises quite well. Not just because it was the "family business", but also from the numerous tech demonstrations the Titans had provided security for, all the robberies they'd foiled there. And that one time that Slade had made him break in to perform a robbery of his own.

Thinking about that summoned a creeping feeling of unease inside him. Robin felt his nerves twist up and senses go on heightened alert, preparing for a threat. Robin shook off the instinctual reaction, dismissed it as nothing more than a reaction to the bad memories and his own ingrained paranoia.

But as he continued on, he couldn't help but feel that there was something… off. It was when he paused a moment before turning round a corner that he heard what sounded like an odd echo of his footsteps. Robin slowed down a little, keening his ears and listening intently, but he couldn't hear anything.

He re-quickened his pace, looking forward but training his ears behind.

There it was again. Footsteps, heavy and booted, slightly out of step with his. The sound was a barely audible murmur, faint, fleeting, and elusive. He might have explained it away as a trick of his mind, tired from the day's wild events and already dwelling on past apprehensions, but as he continued his trek to the Wayne Enterprises he kept on hearing it, dancing just out of auditory range, on the fringes of his ability to sense it.

Not breaking his stride, he glanced over his shoulder. He couldn't see anything in the dark. He stopped for a moment, turned around and strained his eyes, trying to peer through the shadows.

Nothing.

Hesitantly, he faced forward again.

As he made his way, his unease returned, growing steadily along with a vague feeling that, as empty and bare as the streets looked, as dark as the windows were and as how utterly silent it was, he wasn't entirely alone. The odd echo didn't go away, and after several minutes Robin just couldn't dismiss it as his imagination, couldn't ignore his mounting suspicion.

He was being followed. He was certain of it. The hairs prickling on the back of his neck, the ghostly sensation of being watched, of having eyes on him… He wasn't being paranoid. There was _something_ behind him.

Something that was doing a bang-up job of hiding itself, he thought, once again paying a quick look behind and seeing nothing. Whoever was following him was taking care to keep his distance. If not for his noticing the echoing murmur of footsteps, Robin might not have known there was someone there at all.

Robin reversed his direction abruptly, heading away from WayneTech, under the pretense of noticing something off down the street. The echo wavered for a moment. He actually stopped hearing it for a while.

The Boy Wonder swung up to a perch atop the railing of an overpass, stopping completely for a moment. He crouched on the rail, hands clinging to the metal, balancing on the arches of his feet. A breeze whistled past his ears, rustling through his hair. He resisted the urge to look behind him.

He sat for what seemed like an eternity, just listening, waiting with baited breath, monitoring his surroundings. His heart thumped dully inside his chest and prickles of adrenaline crept through his veins.

All was quiet. He couldn't hear the echoing footsteps anymore. His senses still tingled with unease but their focal point—the unnamed, unseen watcher behind him—seemed to have faded.

Had he shaken off the pursuit? _Had_ there been a pursuit?

Robin stayed put. The longer he waited, the more he started to think that he'd been imagining things after all. His instincts insisted upon believing that something was up, but the minutes stretched out and yielded no more evidence of that. He debated with himself for a few seconds on what to do next.

Finally, the Boy Wonder straightened up with a sigh, stepping down off the barrier.

_Maybe I'm overreacting again. I could've _ _ **sworn** _ _…_

He reoriented himself with nearby landmarks and started trotting along the shoulder of the overpass. Placing his hand on the railing he hurdled over it, dropping down to the street below. It was dim here, and dingy. Scrawling spray-paint graffiti looked black on the brick walls, in the dull orange light of the streetlights. Robin broke into a quick walk, once again heading for the WayneTech.

The echoing footsteps returned, this time from his left.

Robin whipped about and hurled a handful of flash bombs that direction, into the gloom in-between the pillars of the overpass. They popped, flaring up and illuminating the shadows, startling a figure hiding within them. Robin wasted no time and flung out a bird-a-rang next.

_CLANG!_

There was a cry and a loud grunt from the person following him. (Adult male, thirties to forties, possibly older, Robin had cataloged from his brief glimpse.) Robin faced the concrete support columns boldly, his back to one of the graffiti-strewn brick walls. The darkness had swallowed up the figure's outline again, but Robin had a good general sense of where the man was.

"I know you're there," he growled. He clenched his fists and put them up, readying for a fight even as he was acutely aware of the lightness of his belt and his admonishment to Raven to prioritize the Tyrants over all else. "Come out of hiding and face me!" he shouted in challenge.

His eyes picked out a silhouette from the blackness, a tall, broad-shouldered person, with something long and narrow strapped to his back. Some kind of weapon, Robin figured. The figure had frozen in place at Robin's words, stood still as though unsure what to do. It looked like he was considering his options. Then, a heavy sigh emanated from him, and he slowly stepped into one of the circles of lamplight.

"I had hoped it wouldn't come to this."

Robin stepped back in alarm, his guard dropping.

_That voice!_

He knew that voice all too well. Fear and bewilderment took him as the figure stepped into the light, and while Robin was slightly thrown by the shorter boots, different belt, and the swords strapped to the man's back he knew on sight the two-tone mask, the black and orange split down the middle with a single, narrow eye.

Slade.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mwah ha ha ha. See you in the next chapter, readers!


	11. Crisis

There was no reasoning in Robin's reaction, no logic or thought process, just pure, unadulterated panic.

Robin whipped out his communicator, slamming the button with his thumb before he'd even brought it up to his face.

"TI—"

The man snapped across the distance between them in an instant, pinning him up against the wall and clamping a heavy hand over his mouth. Robin got no further, his desperate yell cut off and muffled.

"Shut up," the man growled. "Whoever it is you think I am, _I'm not him_, all right?"

Robin was too stunned to move for a second. Not that he had much freedom to do so anyway, with the iron hard grip around his wrist, holding it trapped against the wall so he couldn't use his communicator—still clutched tightly in his hand—or the suffocating leather-gloved palm pushed against his mouth, the weight of the man leaning on him. But after a moment instinct kicked in and he struggled, desperately, twisting in the unsettlingly familiar steel grip of his worst adversary.

"_Mmnt__—"_

The fingers tightened on his wrist; an elbow dug into his shoulder.

"Listen to me for a moment!" the man snapped, and Robin tensed, freezing up. Then, surprisingly softer, tone almost gentle and apologetic now, the man continued, "I'm not going to hurt you. Believe it or not, I'm here to help."

Robin gaped, stared at him, bug-eyed in bewilderment at that.

"_Mrmmt?"_

"I don't expect you to trust me, not with our history," he went on. "Or, my history with your counterpart rather," he corrected. He fixed Robin with a serious look that looked for all world like genuine concern. "But if you don't calm down and hear me out, _both_ our realities will be in serious trouble," he finished.

The Titan didn't quite know how to react. Conflicting emotions battled for control inside him. His instincts were stuck in fight or flight mode. But, surprisingly, he felt his rapid pulse slow a fraction. He stared straight ahead, into the man's single eye. With concerted effort, Robin took a few deep breaths, trying to loosen his wound-tight limbs and calm himself out of panic mode. His body was still flooded with adrenaline, but at least his heart wasn't pounding and he could start to think more clearly now.

"Slade" waited, holding him in place until he felt like the youth was sufficiently calmed. He gave the boy a serious look.

"I'm going to take my hand off now," he told him. "Don't scream," he added in warning.

Robin hesitated a second or two, then inhaled slowly through his nose… and nodded in understanding.

The man waited a moment or two more, cautious, as if expecting Robin to go back on his word the minute he took his hand away. But, at last, he slowly removed his hand and stepped back, releasing Robin. The teen wobbled a little on his feet a second, loosening his death grip on his communicator a fraction. He placed a hand on the wall behind him and stared in mingled disbelief and bewilderment at his would-be enemy.

He had already noticed that this Slade's uniform was slightly different from that of the Slade _he_ knew. At a quick glance it was easy to mistake them, but studying closer Robin could pick out dozens of little details—an extra pouch strapped around his thigh here, a different belt buckle, those long narrow swords sheathed in leather holsters whose straps wound around the man's chest—that told him a different story. The man's whole demeanor, too, threw him off. Robin couldn't put a finger on it, but this Slade's aura and body language seemed less… _threatening_ somehow than the Slade he knew. The steel-plated mask was the same as the one that haunted his nightmares—the _exact_ same—but the expression behind it was more open. Almost… kinder.

"Who _are_ you?" Robin asked, though unconsciously he knew the answer already, or at least his mind suspected.

"Well, that's a loaded question isn't it?" came the man's reply, full of self-depreciating sarcasm. Robin thought he glimpsed the single eye roll towards the overpass above. More seriously the man continued, gesturing softly and folding his arms over his chest. "Judging from your initial reaction, I think you already know my identity. Just a guess, you understand," he quipped, apparently finding more humor in the situation than Robin could.

Robin nodded hesitantly, confirming that yes, he already knew, and his conscious mind had caught up with his unconscious suspicions.

The man put a pensive finger up to his chin. "I'm curious though. What do you call me on this side?" he asked.

"Slade, but—" Robin began, stowing his communicator.

"On a first name basis huh?" the man interrupted. He straightened. Stepping forward he extended a hand out for Robin to shake. "Where I'm from, I'm known by Wilson. It's a pity we couldn't meet under better circumstances Mr. Red…?" He tilted his head expectantly.

Robin put his hand in Wilson's in a daze. "Just Robin." He shook his head as he stepped back, still bewildered. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Was this for real? "You're Slade's heroic counterpart? From the same universe the Tyrants are from?" he had to ask aloud, just to confirm it.

"Wilson" seemed to give a cheese-eating grin behind his mask. "Guilty as charged," he verified with pride. His expression grew concerned all of a sudden, and he shifted his weight forward. "But where's _your_ team? I need to speak to them." He glanced around as if expecting them to appear from the shadows at any moment.

Robin stiffened, on-guard and wary again despite himself. "Why?" he demanded, suspicious.

"It's a matter of the utmost urgency," Wilson said, either ignoring or not caring about Robin's heightened guard.

The Boy Wonder stared at him through narrowed eyes. "How urgent are we talking here?" he asked.

Wilson finally looked at him, his one eye grim, body language serious. "How about apocalyptic, reality-shattering, world-ending urgent?" he offered.

Robin said nothing, tightening his mouth. He continued to regard Slade's alternate counterpart with hard eyes.

Sensing the boy's distrust, Wilson sighed. "Look kid, I understand your suspicion. I would have a hard time of it myself, were I in your position. I'm not asking you to trust me. I can't earn that." He put his hands up in a placating gesture. "All I'm asking is for your help, to save your reality, and mine." He lowered his hands and spoke solemnly, without a trace of pleasantry. "Because, as I said, _both_ our worlds are in danger right now."

He let that hang ominously in the air between them a moment.

Robin mulled over the pronouncement of doom a while, hesitating, still unsure. A large part of him didn't want to trust anyone or anything remotely reminding him of Slade, especially not a man who, for all intents and purposes, _was_ Slade. (Even if he wasn't the Slade that belonged in their particular universe.) But he studied Slade's counterpart for several long seconds and could discern no duplicity or deception from him.

The silence between them grew almost deafening. But finally, Robin accepted the news with a slight nod.

"Okay. I'll take your word for it," he sighed. He took out his communicator once again. "Titans, come in."

Cyborg answered, his voice grainy and fading out occasionally from the distortion and static on the line.

"Robin. Where are you, man? I can't get a lock on your communicator. The interference is getting worse every minute."

Glancing at Wilson, Robin said, "I think I have more bad news. Rendezvous back at the Tower," he ordered. "There's… someone with me who needs to talk to us."

Starfire's voice chimed in, sounding worried.

"Robin?" she called in concern, sensing something in his words that signaled trouble.

"See you in a little bit," he dismissed, cutting off the line before there was any further discussion.

Silence reigned a moment more. Robin rubbed the back of his head wearily, feeling bad about avoiding Starfire's concern and having to dodge her unspoken questions. He shifted uncomfortably on his feet, unsure what the next move was.

Wilson stood impassively with his arms crossed over his chest. "I hope you have quick transportation," he quipped.

Robin shook himself. "Right."

-TT-

Riding back to the Tower with Slade's alternate counterpart on the R-cycle behind him had to be one of the most awkward things Robin had ever experienced. To the man's credit, he seemed to instinctively understand that sitting too close or remotely placing his hands on any part of Robin was a bad idea, and so sat farther back on the R-cycle's seat, gripping the edges of the cushion to hang on. It looked remarkably unsafe but Robin wasn't about to suggest the man move up or hold onto him. Just having Wilson behind him was nerve-wracking enough. He couldn't concentrate on the road.

"Weren't you supposed to take that turn?" asked Wilson.

Robin jolted. "What? Oh, right, right," he blurted absentmindedly, leaning and turning around full-circle to go back down the street he'd missed. "Sorry," he mumbled.

The tires squealed beneath them as Robin made the turn. Robin's cape fluttered and the engine puttered with a steady rhythm. The yellow haze of streetlights flared up in their faces and then faded away as they drove past.

"…Not very talkative, are you?" Wilson commented.

"…No," Robin answered at length.

The man leaned a little bit backwards, peering at the boy's expression from the side, through his helmet, with a frown. He studied Robin a long moment.

"All right," he decided. "Pull over."

"Huh?" asked Robin, confused, stirring from his trance.

"You're distracted," Wilson stated. "Pull over."

Robin shook himself, gripping the handlebars tighter. "I'm fine," he brushed off.

"Pull. Over," Wilson repeated sternly.

Something in his tone threw Robin's mind back into a dark chamber with the sound of clanking, creaking gears, the hiss of steam and a low villainous chuckle. At once he eased off the throttle, trying to quell his spiking heart rate.

The R-cycle slowed and slid over to the shoulder of the road and they came to a gentle stop.

Wilson gave Robin a moment, watching the tension between the boy's shoulder blades. Then he asked quietly, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Robin lied, his tone false and hollow.

The man tilted his head, studying him. "You're shaking," he observed.

"I'm _fine,_" Robin snapped insistently. Then he bit his tongue, inhaling slowly to calm himself. "Sorry," he muttered again. "This is just… really weird for me."

"Undoubtedly," Wilson snarked. He folded his arms over his chest. "Surely though you and my counterpart must have had moments of more… _casual_ conversation?" he asked. "You can't have been at each other's throats all the time."

Robin made a face. "Well, no, but…" He shook his head lightly, drew his mind away from drifting back into those memories. "That's not a time in my life that I like to remember."

Wilson looked at him intently, as though trying to puzzle out what the boy was thinking. Was it Robin's imagination or was there a trace of guilt in the man's expression?

"What exactly did my counterpart do to you?" the man asked at length.

"I don't…" Robin broke off uncomfortably, turning and staring down at the handlebars. "I don't like to talk about it."

Wilson waited, but Robin didn't say anything more. Feeling it wasn't right to push the boy, he decided not to pry further. "I understand," he said. "Is there anything I can do to put you more at ease?"

Robin gave an aggravated noise of frustration. "I don't know. It's not exactly _easy_ to stop thinking about Slade—_our_ Slade—with you behind me."

"Would you be more comfortable if I was in front?" the man suggested. He started reaching around Robin towards the R-cycle's handles.

Robin snapped forward, hunched over the handlebars protectively, shooting Wilson a glare.

"Suit yourself," Wilson said, leaning back. "Since you insist upon driving, I suggest we not linger. Time is not on our side."

The Boy Wonder flinched, hearing the echo of a similar statement inside his head. Despite Wilson's urging for speed, Robin couldn't make himself move. For a long couple of seconds, he hesitated and his nerves danced on piano wires inside his chest.

The man behind him, to his credit, did not repeat himself. "I'm not him you know," he reminded Robin quietly instead.

"I know, just…" Robin groaned, and then gave a sigh, his hands loosening up on the steering. "All right, fine. Switch places." He stood, lifting his leg off the seat.

"You sure?" asked Wilson skeptically, as Robin stepped back away from the cycle.

Robin's head shook dully inside his helmet. "I can't focus with you back there," he admitted. "Just… do it, okay?"

Wilson scooted up on the seat, taking the R-cycle's handlebars at once. "Hang on tight," he cautioned, as Robin took up his former spot towards the back of the R-cycle. "It's harder than it looks."

"Don't worry about me," Robin snapped, gripping the edge of the seat tightly with his fingers. "I can stay on just fine."

A moment later, he almost ate his words, as the R-cycle rocketed forward and his grip was tested. Robin set his teeth and tightened his hands on the cushion, squeezed the chassis of the cycle between his legs, though, and managed to do as he'd promised.

He had to admit, it _was_ much less nerve-wracking with Slade's counterpart in front of him, where Robin could see him. Robin's pulse was less jittery and his heart rate was a calmer pace as they rode back to the Tower under the deepening cover of night. They spoke only briefly, Wilson asking over his shoulder for direction and Robin giving it, and so made their way quickly.

"Slow down a bit," he called to Wilson, as they neared the sensor on the dock that would open up the tunnel below the bay. Robin input the code, and the hidden door in the wall lumbered open to admit them.

"You have a tunnel," Wilson observed. He gave a shrug. "Better access to the city I suppose."

"Of course," replied Robin, slightly confused. "The Tower in your world doesn't?"

"Our Tower doesn't have any connectors to the mainland," he explained, even as he gunned the cycle down the tunnel. "Why would it? The only reason they leave their fortress is to cause trouble."

"I guess that makes a certain amount of sense…" Robin mused. Every encounter with something or someone from the other world was painting a clearer picture of the Tyrants in his mind. Robin was beginning to get a sense of how things worked in their counterpart dimension, how things looked in a world where he and the other Titans were evil instead of heroic, malicious instead of benevolent. He still couldn't quite comprehend what circumstances would have led to such a world. Maybe he would never understand. All he knew right now was that he wanted the Tyrants out of _his_ world and back where they belonged.

Wilson slowed the bike as the garage door into the Tower opened, and shut it off once they came to a stop. Robin stood up, removing his helmet and shaking out his hair.

There was a familiar soft flutter from the doorway and Robin turned to see Starfire coming to meet them, a smile on her face, her mouth open to deliver a greeting.

She caught sight of Wilson and the effect was immediate.

She stopped dead in the air, gasping, starbolts springing instantaneously around her fists and her body coiling with tension to wind up and deliver a blow. The man also tensed and started to reach back for the handle of his sword, but Robin darted in-between them, holding up his hands to placate his protective girlfriend.

"It's okay, Starfire. He's on our side," he assured her quickly. He cast a quick, uncertain look towards the man who resembled Slade. "I think," he added to himself.

Starfire's eyes moved between the two of them rapidly for several moments. Sensing the truth in Robin's words, though, she hesitantly relaxed and dispelled her starbolts, uncurling from her battle tension.

Seeing her lower her guard, Wilson, too, let his grip on his sword hilt ease and brought his hands back down to his sides.

The Tamaranian folded her hands in front of her, dipping her head. "Forgive me. You resemble—" she began.

"Slade," he interrupted. "Yes, I'm beginning to get a sense of just how bad I am in this universe," he told her.

Robin saw Starfire give a faint shudder, as she looked up with careful guarded eyes at the man. "He is our greatest enemy," she declared.

Interest lit keenly in his eye. "Impressive. I can't even claim that with the Tyrants," he said.

Robin angled to face him, regarding him suspiciously. "Red Robin seems to hate you about as much I hate our Slade," he pointed out.

Wilson's body language was immediately uncomfortable and he quickly brushed off the conversation. "Let's not discuss that right now. There are more important things to explain," he dismissed brusquely, already moving forward towards the exit.

Starfire drifted aside to let him pass, ever-so-slightly moving her body between his and Robin's. She gave the Boy Wonder a look of wary unease.

"Robin?" she asked, and somehow everything she needed to say was contained within the single word. Robin understood at once that Starfire was worried, that she was suspicious, that she didn't trust Slade's counterpart any more than he did, but that she also trusted his judgment and wouldn't question the explanation he gave.

So he told her what he knew.

"He didn't hurt me," he said. "He didn't want to fight. He just gave me some ominous warning about both our worlds being in danger, and asked for help stopping it." He sighed. "I don't know what's going on exactly, but… it sounded too genuinely important not to at least hear him out."

She nodded, satisfied with his answer. Glancing ahead at the back of the man in front of them, she lowered her voice to a whisper.

"At the first sign of treachery, I will not hesitate to attack him," she promised firmly.

He reached forward and took her hand. "I know you won't," he whispered back.

Wilson had stopped at the junction of the hall and stood waiting for them, tapping his foot. They led him up to the Common Room, silent the whole time, not even exchanging small talk.

Cyborg was half-under the computer consoles when they came in, splicing together several different loose wires and futzing with the internal circuitry of the Tower's communications hub.

"Glad you're back," he grunted by way of greeting. He slid himself out from under the console, absentmindedly expounding further on his task. "The electromagnetism that portal's throwing off is making everything all wonky. I'm trying to reroute power from the main generators to stabilize the energy fluxes in the communications array but that's not going to work long-term."

"Fascinating," drolled Wilson flatly.

Cyborg started, whirling about in alarm. "What the—?" His sonic cannon charged as soon as he caught sight of Slade's counterpart and Cyborg leveled the barrel right at him. "How the _hell_ did you—" he growled.

"Stand down, Cyborg," Robin ordered. "It's all right. He's not _our_ Slade."

"Like hell he isn't," Cyborg grumbled, but obediently put up his cannon, though he kept his eyes trained on Wilson suspiciously.

Wilson spread his arms in invitation. "You can scan me if you want," he offered cheerfully. "I promise, you'll find trace amounts of the same electromagnetism that's coming off that portal."

Cyborg had already completed a scan and jerked his head curtly. "I can see," he muttered, looking through the feed in his electronic eye, which was back up to full functionality after he had recharged and reinforced his personal EM shielding. The half-robot glanced back at Robin. "Mind telling me what's going on?" he demanded.

"I'm not sure yet myself," Robin admitted, with a brief look towards Wilson.

"I'll explain everything when you're all here," the man said, crossing his arms. "This isn't the kind of thing I want to waste time saying twice."

Robin nodded in understanding. His eyes glanced back to the display on the screen. "Where's Raven and Beast Boy?"

A worried flash passed over Cyborg's face. "I dunno…" he said, turning to the map grid. "I can't raise them and I can't get a lock on them."

"They were responding to that alert the last time I heard from them," Robin said, coming over to take a look, a troubled frown weighing down his mouth.

"That was Sector 34, right?" Cyborg shook his head. "That whole area's a dead zone. It's gonna be hard to get through to them through the interference."

"We'll just have to try," Robin said. He sighed. "I hope they're not in over their heads."

-TT-

"Shouldn't we call for back-up?" Beast Boy whispered, crouched down next to Raven in the shrubbery next to the lab. From this vantage point they could easily see the three red-clad figures of Tempest, Arsenal, and Blackfire sneaking into the building through one of the windows.

Raven shook her head. "Couldn't if we wanted to," she told him, holding up her communicator, which issued nothing but a steady hiss of white noise. "Comm's down. Can't get a clear signal." She put the device away. "Besides," she added, smirking, "shouldn't we be able to handle them?"

Beast Boy plopped to his rear awkwardly. "Fish Boy and Pinhead, sure. I dunno about Blackfire though. She looks kind of tough."

"Well, we're not going to stop them from doing whatever they came to do out here," Raven declared, rising to her feet and brushing a stray leaf or two off her cloak. "Let's go."

She floated up and levitated after the Tyrants, taking the same open window to get in. Beast Boy fluttered on raven wings next to her, morphing back into human shape once inside and taking cover behind a desk. Raven dropped next to him right after.

"You gonna be okay to fight?" asked the changeling with concern.

In truth, Raven's headache was worse than ever, flashes of light arcing across her vision accompanied by sharp lances of pain, but she buried the discomfort under a constant subtle undercurrent of her healing powers. She hadn't wanted to use them before, due to how quickly they drained her, but her focus was so fuzzy that she just couldn't bear it anymore. The constant small stream of healing energy was keeping the pain away, keeping her head clear enough to concentrate. She made sure not to feed herself too much relief too quickly though. Azar knew she didn't want to run out of juice at a crucial moment.

"I'll be fine," she told Beast Boy.

He grinned. "Shall we kick their butts?" he joked.

Raven let dark matter ripple across her palms, surrounding her fists. "Oh yes," she purred.

-TT-

Tempest darted a nervous glance towards the shadows on the far end of the room. "Come on, hurry!" he barked at Arsenal, scanning the stores with Blackfire. "Grab something and let's go!"

"I will when I find something we can _use,_" Arsenal growled through his teeth. "If you see an electromagnetic generator or any of the component parts thereof anywhere nearby, by all means," he said sarcastically, "point it out to me."

"Is this perhaps something we can use?" asked Blackfire, holding up a long, tube-like part.

Arsenal glanced it over. "No, but pocket it anyway. I need one of those to fix the T-ship back home." He turned back to the stores, shining the beam of his small flashlight across the shelves. "Assuming we can even _get_ back home," he muttered. "No thanks to you, Princess."

"What was that?" came an icy inquiry from Blackfire, her eyes turning to slow-burning coals of anger as they peered aside at him.

The archer didn't turn around. "I'm just _saying_…" he spat in pointed syllables, "… that we'd never have gotten stuck here in the first place if you and Red Robin hadn't decided to hop universes and have yourselves your own personal little crime spree without the rest of us."

Blackfire surged forward in the air indignantly. "How dare you!" she cried, offended. "You did not have to follow us! We would have made it back fine on our own!"

"Red Raven'll find a way to get us back," Tempest added calmly, searching his own shelf.

"And if not—" a new voice broke in.

The three Tyrants whirled around to discover Raven and Beast Boy at the far end of the room, near the glass doors that led to the atrium.

Raven raised her hands, crackling with black energy. "—_we'd _certainly be happy to show you the door," she finished.

"Aww, come on! Not now!" Arsenal groaned, even as he loaded his bow.

Tempest cast his telekinetic senses out, searching for a water source, and Blackfire charged up and hurled forward with a furious yell.

Raven flung up a shield to meet the Tamaranian's first starbolt-charged punch. The two forces, light and dark, clashed and sparked a moment before Blackfire's own momentum bounced off the shield and flung her back chaotically. Tempest raised his good arm to catch her and the two went crashing into the shelf behind with a grunt.

Beast Boy stepped forth and doubled over, increasing in size until he was a lithe, mean velociraptor. He darted forward in a rush, whirling around and smacking his tail into Arsenal as the archer tried to aim. The Tyrant tumbled head over heels, skidding across the floor and into a table full of glass beakers, several of which toppled off the top and shattered on the ground.

Blackfire was back up now, zooming up to gain altitude near the ceiling as she hurled starbolts down at them. Raven weaved in and out of the shots, levitating up to send a beam of dark matter at the Tamaranian. She blocked with a starbolt, but the collision knocked her through the air, forcing her towards the floor. She glared up at Raven with her seething gray eyes but had no time for a counter-strike as a shadow fell over her. Beast Boy was a towering Tyrannosaur now, snapping his jaws in a lightning-fast motion. Blackfire gasped, her eyes widening in terror as the changeling's teeth caught hold of the back of her clothes. She dangled there a moment before a swipe of his great head flung her off into the other wall. She hit the metal hard and slid prone to the floor, dazed.

Raven was battling Arsenal now, picking up metal parts and hurling them at him, getting in close to take a swing, all of which he blocked awkwardly with his bow.

"Screw this!" he yelled, reaching into his quiver and grabbing a smoke arrow, the tip of which he smashed against the table behind him. "Tempest! Blackfire! Let's get out of here!"

The smoke started to fill the room. Raven lost sight of Arsenal briefly as he vaulted over the desk, turning tail. She frowned, reached out with her hand and her mind, her eyes glowing white.

There was a yelp as her powers found him, yanked him bodily out from the spreading fog and tossed him over into the clear to join Blackfire. Beast Boy had become a lion and darted into the smoke to fish out Tempest. Raven could hear the two of them grappling somewhere in the haze.

She raised her arms, closing her eyes and concentrating. Dark matter swirled in a tight vortex above her head, suctioning away the smoke, fanning it thinner until it was no more.

Arsenal shot a few arrows towards her back. She blocked with another shield without even turning around, then sent a blast of dark matter his way.

Beast Boy and Tempest were wrestling behind her, Tempest with his arm clamped around the changeling's head as he morphed from shape to shape. He held on through the transformation from lion to bull to gorilla. Finally Beast Boy switched tactics and became a porcupine, releasing several spines into Tempest's arms.

The Atlantian shrieked in pain, letting go at once and yanking the spines out with a girly little hop from foot to foot. He drew upon his powers to pull the nozzle off the closest washing station and send a jet towards the shape-shifter.

Beast Boy morphed again, into a frog to hop out of the way, and then—when enough water had gathered on the floor under Tempest's feet—flopped himself down to become an eel.

Tempest's eyes widened but a split second later the changeling had sent electricity coursing through the puddle up into him through his legs. The Atlantian seized up, grimacing, and fell over like a stiff board.

Raven turned with a satisfied look to Arsenal and Blackfire. The Tamaranian was holding her head, still dazed, leaning heavily on Arsenal's shoulder as he helped her up. She had a quip ready; it was on the tip of her tongue as she raised her hand.

Pain exploded behind her temples, flooding her vision with white light and filling her ears with a harsh ring.

"Aaaah!" she cried, clapping both hands over her head and sinking to her knees, her senses disappearing into the haze of pain.

-TT-

"OW!" Red Raven yelped at almost the same moment, doubling over in a mirror position as the pounding headache took hold.

Red Robin and Cyber-Vile looked up from their corner in bewilderment to see her ashen-white, her face grimacing, twisting.

She staggered back, dizzy on her feet.

-TT-

_Fear… Everyone was so afraid… It was a constant fog-cover, a cloud of emotion that never went away… What new terror had the Tyrants unleashed upon them?_

Raven struggled to focus through the confused jumble of sensations she was getting—the physical pain, the empathic overload of foreign emotions, the awareness of a great sucking vortex somewhere nearby. She thought she heard someone calling for her. It was a shrill, high voice, familiar and anchoring.

"Raven!" it was crying in a panic. "Raven, what's wrong? Raven!"

She blocked out all the other sensations and pushed towards the voice. Awareness settled back into her and the throbbing pain in her head faded. The blaring vibrations of fear dimmed as suddenly as they'd come.

She was kneeling on the floor. There were hands on her shoulders, around her head and neck, holding onto her. Raven shook her head, coming to herself. The hands belonged to Beast Boy of course, and their warmth spread through her body, which felt suddenly cold.

"Beast Boy…?" she murmured.

He relaxed at once upon hearing her voice, kneeling down by her and peering into her face to make sure she was whole. "I'm here, Raven," he promised. "I'm right here."

"I…" she stammered, still shaking her head to throw off the fog. "What… _was_ that?" she asked.

"You screamed and just kinda zoned out for a moment," he told her. "I thought you'd been hurt or something."

Raven rubbed her temple softly, sending tendrils of healing magic through her head. "For a moment I felt… like I could hear dozens of new minds." Her eyes widened and she leaned forward to cast her eyes about the room. "The Tyrants?" she asked anxiously.

"Yeah, no, they got away," Beast Boy said apologetically as he helped her to her feet. "Sorry." He gestured towards the wrecked shelves and displaced furniture and gave a grin. "Least they didn't have a chance to take anything!" he commented brightly.

The empath sighed. "Which way did they go?" she asked wearily.

Beast Boy pointed towards the atrium. "That way. North-ish, I think."

Raven took a few shaky steps in that direction, getting her legs steady beneath her. "We should try to… follow them," she said, trying to keep mission-focused.

"Ohhhhh no," Beast Boy snapped, coming around to block her path. "No way. Not with you having freakouts like that. I don't think it's a good idea. It's a _bad _idea, Raven. And believe me," he told her, "I know bad ideas."

The heat of an argument churned inside her, almost bubbling up to the surface, but Raven paused a moment and then slumped against a table.

"No… you're right," She blew out a long, defeated breath. "Azar, I can't even _think _properly. I need to meditate."

Beast Boy smiled. "No problem!" he chirped. "I'll just let Robin know we're heading back to the Tower."

The changeling pulled out his communicator, flipping it open before frowning in disappointment.

"Oh, wait… that's right…" he said. "They're shot."

He waved it around, raising and lowering it and listening closely to the static anyway, searching for a clearer signal. The static hissed and sputtered, crackling in and out.

Raven took the moment to continue collecting herself. She slowed her breathing to a regular rhythm, sliding up to sit on the table. She folded her legs in lotus position and closed her eyes.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos…" she muttered. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos…"

A garbled voice came in over the channel. Beast Boy alerted to it excitedly. "Ooh!" he exclaimed, turning in that direction and laying his ear down near the speaker, listening hard.

"_Kkssh_—need you to—_skkksss_—Tower—"

"Cy, is that you?" Beast Boy spoke into the comm. He twisted the volume knob, turning it up to full.

"_Sskkkkkkk_—Beast Boy?"

"Yeah dude! I hear you!" the changeling pronounced.

Through the crackles and audio fuzz, Beast Boy could just barely make out Cyborg and Robin's voices.

"You all right, green bean?" Cyborg of course. Only Cy could get away with calling him that.

The changeling glanced at Raven, already deep in meditation it looked like. "Yeah, I'm fine. I dunno about Raven, though. I think her headache's getting worse. She collapsed during the fight with the Tyrants."

"Is she hurt?" That was Robin's voice asking now.

"I don't think so, just kinda stunned. She's meditating right now."

"Well bring her out of it. I need both of you back at the Tower _right now_."

Raven cracked open an eye. "Something the matter?" she asked flatly.

"It… it's kind of hard to explain… The portal's still expanding and the person who scared off the Tyrants from our last fight with them is…" They heard a flush of static as Robin took a breath. "Just… don't freak out when you arrive, okay?"

The empath sighed again, uncurling her limbs. "Fine. We're coming."

She slid down off the table and came over, taking Beast Boy's hand in hers. Darkness surrounded them as the world melted away.

-TT-

When it cleared, to reveal the Titans' Common Room, Raven's heart jolted and, in spite of Robin's admonition, she took an alarmed step backwards. Next to her Beast Boy also jumped and freaked out, grabbing onto her cloak and clinging to it with his fingers as he cowered behind her with wide eyes.

The man sent an annoyed look towards their leader.

"Is this going to happen every time someone new sees me?" he asked witheringly.

Robin glared back, evenly. "You can't exactly blame them, _Slade_."

Wilson sighed. "No… I suppose I can't," he admitted.

Beast Boy had gathered his courage and stepped around Raven with an angry look, his shoulders tense and his hands fisted. "What is _he_ doing here?" he hissed.

"_He_ is here to help you with your… 'Tyrant' problem," Wilson replied.

Beast Boy rolled his eyes so hard Raven was afraid, for a moment, that they'd fall out of his head. "Yeah right," the changeling spat sarcastically. He pointed an accusing finger towards the man. "You expect us to fall for a trick like that?" he asked, eyes full of suspicion.

"He's telling the truth," Raven interrupted. She had calmed from her initial alarm, was staring at the man and cautiously probing out with her mind, tasting his aura. "I can sense it. His mental signature feels… off." It was just like back in the prison, when she'd confused Robin's "signature" for what she now knew had most likely been Red Robin's. They _felt_ the same at first, to her senses. Similar enough to confuse them with a first look. But a closer probe revealed otherwise. He _was_ Slade… but not _their_ Slade, somehow. The empathic spectrum around him was wrong. Raven couldn't quite explain it, even to herself. He just didn't quite… _feel _like their Slade.

She stepped back, addressing the changeling.

"He's from the other world," she announced.

Beast Boy glanced to Raven, "Are you _sure?_" he asked, still feeling uncertain.

"I'm not wrong," she insisted.

The changeling huffed in discontent, grossing his arms and grumbling quietly in his throat.

Wilson seemed to grin, and mock-bowed with a flourish. "Member Number 887 of the Brotherhood of Justice, at your service. Informally known as Wilson, formally known by the alias Swordstroke, if that's what you'd prefer."

Cold green eyes turned up at him. "I'd _prefer_ you stand on _that _side of the room. Away from us," Beast Boy growled.

The man shrugged nonchalantly. "Whatever helps," he said, as he moved towards the front of the room.

Robin and Cyborg both stood up from their seats by one of the computer consoles as the Brotherhood member came towards them.

"All right," said Robin, crossing his arms, expression no-nonsense. "We're all here. Tell us what's going on."

Wilson nodded. "Certainly." He gestured towards the computer console. "May I borrow that?"

"You put any bugs in the system I'll-" Cyborg threatened.

"Make me regret it, I'm sure," Wilson cut him off. "My, but you're a suspicious lot, aren't you?"

The teens said nothing. Wilson turned around and stepped up to the console. Robin and Cyborg walked over to stand behind him as he began tapping on the keyboard, feeding it new data and sifting through the various graphs the mainframe had already drawn.

"Sure you don't want to take a seat?" Wilson offered.

"I'm good," Cyborg said flatly.

The Titans gathered around, taking up various positions around the room. Starfire hovered close behind Raven and Beast Boy near the sofa.

"Start talking," Robin ordered, from his post at the head of them.

Wilson nodded, tapping one final key and then stepping back from the console to face them.

"You've already noticed the great gaping tear in the middle of your city, of course," he began.

"How could we miss it?" intoned Raven flatly.

"And, I assume, you know all about the electromagnetic interference and energy spikes emanating from said tear."

"Naturally," said Cyborg. "You gonna tell us anything we _don't_ already know now?"

Wilson turned to the display and brought up a diagram of the rift. "What you might not know," he told them, "is that it's not just electromagnetic energy that's coming through the rift. It's all spectrums of energy. Light, radio, UV…" His gaze drifted over them, coming to rest upon Raven. "…and psychic," he finished.

Raven started at that. "I've been getting mental noise all day," she said. "Since the portal opened. The last time we fought the Tyrants it almost overwhelmed me." She turned to the swordsman. "You're saying I'm picking up the emotions of people in your universe?"

"Most likely," he replied. "One of our psychics is reporting similar 'mental noise'."

The empath stepped back with a frown. It made a surprising amount of sense, especially with the cloud of fear that had hit her back in the tech sector. She was silent a moment, absorbing this, and Beast Boy piped up for her.

"Well, that explains your headache," he said, cracking a smile in spite of things.

"Worse than any empathic noise," continued Wilson, "is the fact that physical particles are now leaking through the hole. I don't know what the distortion is like on this side, but on my end… it's not pretty." He leaned back against the edge of the console and explained soberly, "My universe, to put it simply, is spilling into yours."

The Titans gaped at that.

"How is that possible?" breathed Robin.

"I wish we knew," Wilson replied in grim humor. "Even our top multi-dimensional theorists never conceived of this possibility. I do have a sneaking suspicion that the… _unique_ contrasts between our universes more than played a role."

"What do you mean?" asked Starfire, her hands up in front of her chest fearfully.

"In our universe, we're heroes, the Brotherhood is evil, and Slade is a villain," Robin mused, trying to follow Wilson's logic. "But in his… it's almost completely the polar opposite."

"Like a magnet!" Beast Boy blurted excitedly, thrilled that he could understand.

Expecting a withering comment on the shape-shifter's simplistic thought process, the Titans were surprised when Wilson simply agreed and said, "Yes. And like North and South, positive and negative, our universes seem to almost naturally attract." He shook his head. "In any case, our two dimensions are now linked, threaded together through the portal." He looked at them all seriously. "And slowly being pulled towards each other."

Starfire's mouth opened with a silent gasp, and Raven felt foreboding and anxiety rise up from all of them. Creeping fear was trickling through her own heart as the dawning horror of the situation came upon her.

Robin had uncrossed his arms at the revelation. "So what happens to us when they meet?" he asked quietly.

"You ever seen two marbles knocking into each other? Or two magnets being brought together?"

The Titans collectively flinched, imagining the scenario and hearing the sharp _CLACK! _as the marbles banged into each other and the magnets snapped together.

"Best case scenario, according to our people, the two universes just meld into one composite universe," Wilson told them. "But even _that_ will be disastrous."

"No kidding," said Cyborg. He uncrossed his arms, glancing towards Robin. "I don't much like the idea of a whole world-full of evil doubles coming into our reality."

Robin didn't reply, but Beast Boy piped in. "Dude, there would be an _evil Superman_. I'm creeped out just thinking about it."

"To say nothing of the effect on the physical world when it suddenly has to accommodate two contrasting realities, two earths, two populaces. Between the highly possible earthquakes, asteroids, geological upheaval, and supernovas, villainous doubles will be the _least_ of your worries," Wilson continued.

Robin stirred a bit from his pensive stance. "So, optimistically, we're looking at a joining."

"Yes."

The Boy Wonder's gaze grew hesitant. He was loath to ask, but he had to know. "And… less optimistically?"

Wilson shrugged. "Who knows? I can't imagine it'd be pleasant though." Minimizing the display, he faced them all, squaring his shoulders seriously. "But I can promise you this:" he said.

He glanced around the room, locking eyes with each of them in turn.

"Whatever this comes to," he said, "It will be the end of both our worlds as we know them."


	12. Searching

The Titans were silent a long moment, absorbing and processing the grim situation.

Raven moved over to the couch and sank down into it with a heavy sigh.

"Juuuuuust the way I wanted to spend my birthday," she muttered, rubbing her temples. "Saving the world from a looming apocalypse. _Again._"

"What can we do?" warbled Starfire, her eyes as wide as dinner plates and her hands clutching her heart.

Wilson turned back to the screen, zooming in on the diagram of the rift. "Here is where I have some good news," he said. "Fortunately, the solution to our problem appears simple, with a few caveats. Since it's the portal that's linking our two worlds and allowing them to spill into each other, my superiors believe all there is to do is simply force the door closed."

"Oh, is _that_ all?" Cyborg snarked. "Man, we don't even know how the portal _opened _much_ less _how to close it!" he complained.

"We could get Herald to do it," Beast Boy suggested.

Raven snorted. "Good luck trying to get through to him in whatever dimension he's in right now, what with our comm system the way it is."

"You mentioned caveats?" Robin prompted, raising a hand.

Wilson nodded. "Upon closer analysis, the Brotherhood discovered that not just anyone can close the portal. Our attempts had precisely zero effect. There is a certain empathic 'essence' intrinsic to the portal's construction." He looked significantly at Raven. "We believe it will only respond to its mistress."

Raven blanched slightly. She glanced back at the display of the rift on the main screen. "I... It's..." she stammered. _It's so big,_ she wanted to say. She shook her head. "I dunno if I can do that," she confessed.

"We may not have a choice," Starfire said quietly.

"With all due respect," Wilson interrupted, "you aren't the only half-demon empath running around this world."

Her mind flashed a picture of a pale laughing face with burning red eyes, framed by pink hair.

Her jaw set firmly.

"No."

"Raven—" Robin started.

"Absolutely not," she cut off. "I don't want anything to do with her... me..." She grimaced with confusion, shaking her head. "Ugh, _her._"

"You don't have the luxury of options, I'm afraid," Wilson sneered. "Unless you're willing to risk the portal rejecting your touch? Or you're confident you can close it by yourself?"

Raven was silent a long moment and then sighed.

"Great, so..." piped up Beast Boy, flipping over the back of the couch to join her. "...we gotta find our evil twins again."

"And quickly," added Cyborg. The rift's getting bigger every minute."

"I can help with that," offered Wilson. "I know their habits, where they like to hide."

Robin stirred from a deep thought. "All right Titans, Cyborg and I will canvas the city map from here. Sla—Wilson," he corrected, "help us narrow down the search." He turned to their resident empath. "Raven, rest up and meditate. See if you can sense the Tyrants anywhere. But don't push yourself," he instructed. "Starfire, keep watch."

"What about me?" asked Beast Boy.

"Anything you can tell us about the last time you saw the Tyrants or where they were headed will help."

The shape-shifter made a face. "Do we have to work with _him?_" he whined, jerking his head toward where Wilson was already next to Cyborg by the computer consoles.

"I hate to admit it..." Robin said, shaking his head in resignation, "...but he probably does know more about the Tyrants than we do."

Beast Boy gave another discontented grumble in his throat, but obediently followed Robin to the computers to join Cyborg and Wilson, while behind him Raven and Starfire quietly exited the room.

-TT-

Red Raven was going to invent a new word to describe pain. And then she was going to inflict that degree of it on her teammates.

"What do you _mean_ you can't find anything?" she growled into the communicator. "This is Jump City. Wayne Industries and STAR Labs both have branches here. _Someone's_ going to have what we need."

"Well we've searched four labs and a tech company and so far nothing," Arsenal told her.

"Then keep looking" Red Raven snapped. "I don't want to hear from you again until you find something."

She cut the line off, and stood there fuming at the device a moment.

A moment later she flipped it back open and opened the channel again.

"Arsenal."

"Thought you didn't want to hear from me again," he snarked.

"Shut up," she spat. "Any sign of our old Brotherhood friend?"

"No," replied Arsenal. "Haven't seen him. If he _is_ skulking about he's keeping a low profile."

Red Raven pursed her lips, briefly scanning her empathic radar. "I can't sense him anywhere either."

"Should we be worried?" Tempest asked, piping in.

"Not yet," she told him. "Slade'll keep hidden until he comes up with a plan. He knows can't take all of us. He'll try and split us up before he makes his move. Stay close to Blackfire, both of you."

She could hear the sarcasm in Arsenal's voice as he replied, "Yes, Mom."

"Watch your attitude, Arrow Boy!" she sniped. She ended the conversation there, turning off her communicator again.

Taking a deep breath, she stepped over to the window, lifting up the edge of the curtain to take a peek. She couldn't see the Tower from here—they were facing the wrong direction—but she could picture it, glittering against the inky blankness of night.

What time was it now? Nine? Ten? Only a few more hours until her birthday, at any rate.

If she had to spend it here she was going to kill someone. Sure, she could inflict any figurative hell on this version of Jump City, but it wouldn't be the same. They knew her back home, knew her brand of terror well. Dread added to the unique taste of their fear of her; a certain knowledge of exactly what she could do only heightened the thrill. Blind directionless panic was all she'd be able to wrest from those in this reality, like as for any common monster of the week. That these people wouldn't know her from an average rampaging lab disaster was almost insulting.

She heard soft footfalls padding behind her, and then felt tiny pink-pricks on her skin and a weight dragging on the back of her cloak. A matted green cat climbed its way onto her shoulders, rubbing its short fur against her face and purring loudly.

Red Raven smiled, and reached up to scratch the shape-shifter behind his soft ears. "Well I guess it's not all bad..." she cooed under her breath. "The Hayes Municipal Art Museum here has probably never been completely pilfered." She sighed wistfully, remembering the pitiful haul of almost worthless trinkets the Tyrants had liberated from the museum a few short weeks ago. "They never keep anything good there anymore..." she bemoaned to herself.

-TT-

"They should be hiding out somewhere close to the tech sector," Robin mused, staring intently at the map display on the screen. Two little red dots indicated where Beast Boy had said the trail started going cold and where he and Raven had last seen the Tyrants. The changeling had departed a little while ago, to go check on Raven.

"That's still a lot of ground to cover," observed Cyborg, seated in the chair next to Robin. He rolled forward to type on the keyboard. "Lemme cross-reference the afternoon's robberies and skirmishes with where we've already looked, see if it forms a trail."

Wilson had been silent up until then, standing back and watching with his arms crossed in front of him. Now, he spoke up.

"Overlay a map of all the hotels and inns in that section," he instructed, gesturing toward a patch of city between the two already plotted markers.

Robin looked up curiously, a question in his eyes.

"The Tyrants prefer more comfortable accommodations than those provided by your average abandoned warehouse," Wilson explained. "They would have bribed or coerced a free room from someone."

Satisfied, Robin nodded to Cyborg, who shrugged silently and tapped a few keys.

A scattering of blue-white dots appeared on the map. Wilson leaned forward and studied them a moment.

"There," he said, pointing, circling his finger around four dots in particular. "One of these. That's where they'll be hiding."

"Are you sure?" asked Robin.

Wilson nodded. "Trust me."

"Yeah, see," Cyborg said dryly, "the problem is... I don't."

The man's eye turned icy. "I didn't _have_ to warn you about the impending cataclysmic disaster facing your world," he pointed out. "If it had been up to me, I would have vastly preferred to track down the Tyrants by myself."

Cyborg looked at him skeptically. "And then what? Even our Slade had to be jacked up on demonic fire powers before he could take all of us on his own."

"That part was, admittedly, unclear," Wilson admitted. "And Dr. Light would probably not have approved of my methods to... _convince_ Red Raven to close the portal. Circumstances forced my hand, made me seek you out. Nevertheless," he said, "a little less open hostility would be appreciated. I'm here to _help. Act_ like it."

Cyborg simmered down, sloughing his shoulders. "Wouldn't it have been less awkward to... I dunno, send a note?" he asked.

"I _had_ been keeping out of your way. You can thank the Boy Genius here for flushing me out."

"You were _following_ me!" Robin blurted indignantly.

Wilson had the sense to look embarrassed. "I... wasn't sure how to approach you," he explained.

"Stalking me _wasn't_ the best start!" Robin snapped back.

Cyborg let out a sigh. "And you wonder why we have such issues trusting you..."

-TT-

Raven floated in the void, combing through the fabric of her mind to clear out the clutter. Her headache would return once she was back in her body, she knew, but for now she could relish the silence.

Her soul self lazily twisted through the air, drifting this way and that, cautiously probing for any hint of the Tyrants. So far all she could feel were normal civilian signatures, far down below.

She kept well clear of the portal, which she could see with immediate and startling clarity in this state. Like a virus spore it looked, irregular and blotchy, with dozens of tendrils spiraling outward, stretching in all directions. Behind it she could see, faintly transparent, the outlines of rooms and support struts and air ducts. A cross-section of Tyrants Tower, she assumed. And, if she got too near, she could start to feel the cloud of fear and confusion spilling through the gap, manifesting as a shrill, tinny ring in her ears.

She gently retraced her and Beast Boy's steps from earlier, keeping track of time and how far she was going, so she wouldn't have to rush back to her body. One strand of thought felt outwards, carefully extending. She kept the rest of her mind close to herself, wary and on guard. Now that she'd tangled twice with the Tyrants and lost her full mental control one way or another both times, she was extra keen not to repeat the experience.

The night was growing old. It had to be past curfew now, though if she checked she could sense a few stray teenagers still out and about.

_You'd think it'd make it easier to pick out the Tyrants,_ she mused to herself. But she couldn't feel them any—

Wait.

Raven paused, hesitantly extending her senses out. There it was. Faint, because of the distance, but still detectable. Familiar empathic patterns. At least four. There was one that was a little more immediately recognizable, both from sensing it at the prison earlier that day, and from already being well familiar with the mind of their own Robin.

Because of their bond, he was always a little easier to pick out from the empathic crowd. That factor had just come in very handy, for Raven was sure she was sensing Red Robin right now.

She chanced dropping a little closer. If she could feel the Tyrants, there was a good chance they—or rather one specific they—could feel her. She didn't want to get too close and risk alerting them.

Brushing her empathy over the presence, she confirmed it. Red Robin. He was surly and frustrated about something. It was uncanny how much his mind looked like Robin's. But his emotions were oddly... muted. Raven nudged gently and came up against strong mental blocks around his mind. They were even thicker than Robin's mental walls. Raven wondered idly about this a moment as she swiftly turned around and made back for the Tower.

No time to linger. She was pushing her limits as it was, and she didn't even have to look to know that the rift was still widening.

The tinny ring of empathic feedback followed her all the way back to her body.

-TT-

"It's a simple WayneTech Jupiter system, Arsenal," Red Robin sighed. "Just... stay calm and I'll walk you through it."

The archer gave a groan of frustration over the communicator. "We don't have time to disarm it. The perimeter sensors are already tripped. Guards or police'll be here any minute."

Red Robin gnashed his teeth in aggravation. "You could have _told_ me that before you called to freak out on me." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "All right, 'Fire? Just... just break the glass."

The sound of glittery shattering came over the channel, followed by the loud ring of an alarm.

"Do you see the cabinets on the far end?" asked Red Robin. "Look there first."

"Already did," Tempest replied. "Nothing."

"Seriously?" Red Robin frowned and pushed a page or two off the blueprints of the site he'd printed out. "Hang on, there's a locked supply closet on the far right side."

"Do not bother," came Cyber-Vile's monotone interruption. His stony eyes were fixed on the streams of data flashing across their laptop computer screen. "Lab reports state they moved their inventory last week, at twenty-two hundred hours on Monday the twenty-eighth."

"You wanna tell the tin man to say that again?" growled Arsenal. "Nice security hacking work. _Buddy_. Way to waste our time."

"Apologies. The encryption on the lab's data servers was... difficult."

Red Raven, standing at the window still, stiffened and alerted to something suddenly. "What was that?"

"What, the sound of me trying to throttle Cyber-Vile through the communicator?" Arsenal asked sarcastically.

Red Raven lifted up her hand with a loud, "SHH!"

Everyone in the room stilled.

Changeling perked his head up with a curious, _"Mrow?"_

For a moment, no one made a sound. Then, Red Raven's shoulders untensed and she left out a puff of air through her nose.

"What is it?" asked Red Robin, irritated.

She shrugged. "Thought I sensed something. It's gone now."

"Oh, well..." he snarked. He waved his hand in a gesture for her to proceed. "Carry on then."

-TT-

Starfire and Beast Boy looked up to see Wilson coming down the hall towards them. They both straightened from where they were leaning on the open door frame of Raven's Room.

"What's her status?" asked the man.

"She is still deep in meditation. I have not seen her soul self return yet," Starfire replied.

Beast Boy checked his watch. "She should be back pretty soon. She isn't usually gone from her body more than thirty minutes."

Wilson gestured back over his shoulder with his chin. "Cyborg and Robin are calling hotels, pinning down where the Tyrants are staying. Once they've determined it, we'll be heading out."

"You will be accompanying us?" Starfire determined, her expression impassive and posture guarded.

"Is that a problem?"

She studied him a long moment. "No," she replied finally. "I do not believe you will harm us."

"A vote of confidence." He chuckled. "That's a first."

"Well you know," Beast Boy said sardonically, "it isn't exactly every day that a heroic version of your arch-nemesis crosses over from another reality."

"Admittedly true."

Silence reigned a moment. Beast Boy shifted uncomfortably, staring at the hilts of Wilson's twin swords.

"Uh... you don't... actually... _use_ those on anyone... right?" he asked with trepidation.

The man seemed to grin behind his mask. "How do you think Tempest got his hook?"

Starfire looked mortified. "Y—you are doing the joking, yes?"

The humor drained from his eye. "No," he said, very seriously. Beast Boy's mouth opened to say something but Wilson put up his hand to stop him. "Save it. It was long ago, and I've already heard plenty of lectures about it from Dr. Light."

"The Dr. Light... is your superior?" Starfire guessed. "What is he like?"

"_She," _Wilson corrected, "is a brilliant woman, but she has no tolerance for what she deems excessive force. So we don't always see eye to eye." Wilson chuckled again, crossing his arms. "The stunt with Tempest nearly made her throw me out of the Brotherhood."

"So why didn't she?" asked a familiar dry voice.

Beast Boy and Starfire started and turned to see Raven at the doorway of her room, her own arms crossed and an impassive expression on her face.

Wilson squared his shoulders, puffing himself up in irritation. "Because she knows I'm one of the best men at her disposal. My methods aren't always pretty, but I get the job done," he told her evenly.

"Some hero you are," said Beast Boy, rolling his eyes.

The irritated glare turned upon him. "You know, I'm willing to bet you Titans aren't perfect paragons of justice all the time," he pointed out. "And I'll bet your Slade has had moments of surprising altruism too."

"We have yet to witness such a thing," Starfire said, quietly.

"Perhaps if you asked Robin," snorted Wilson.

"Maybe," Raven allowed. She stepped out into the hall with them. "We'd have to really pry. He doesn't exactly talk about it."

"Noticed that," Wilson said. "Not terribly surprising I suppose. Given my own history with the Tyrants I assume similar... _incidents_ happened here as well?"

Raven leveled a steady, probing look at him, her eyes narrow. "_Our_ Slade kidnapped and blackmailed him and held him captive for a week," she said carefully, posture almost challenging. "What did _you_ do to him?"

"Is that really relevant?" he asked, bitingly. "The Tyrants are rabble-rousing delinquent brats. Do they need any more reason to dislike me?"

"No," Raven said evenly, "but considering you just admitted to dismembering a teenager a minute ago _I _might need more reason to trust you."

"Aren't I helping you stop the coming disaster?"

"And we appreciate that," she dismissed. "But how about a little honesty now?"

Starfire and Beast Boy watched nervously from the sides, glancing back and forth between the two as they stared each other down a long moment.

Wilson let out a sigh of defeat.

"...I was _trying_ to help him," he said at last. "I found him unconscious and bleeding out in an alleyway behind the museum. Some sort of scrape with the police I figured. I took him back to one of my hideouts and patched him up."

"And then you didn't let him leave?" guessed Raven. "Why not just turn him over to the Brotherhood, or the police?"

"I thought I could get through to him," Wilson admitted sadly. "Break past the years of mental conditioning inflicted by his mentor. The Brotherhood's doctors had tried before, during the few brief times we had hold of him, but with no success. I thought I would be the one to finally reach him." He finished simply, "I was wrong."

"He took it about as well as our Robin did then?" asked Beast Boy.

Wilson shrugged. "Oh, he screamed and wailed about it plenty. But towards the end... it seemed like he was softening. If I'd had a little more time with him..." He rolled his eye. "But of course that was when the rest of the Tyrants finally found him."

Beast Boy seemed hesitant to press his next thought. "And... uh... what about... a blonde geokinetic girl? Went by the name of Terra?" Posture growing guarded he folded his arms across his chest. "Ring any bells?" he challenged.

"...Tara Markov?" Wilson asked after a pregnant pause.

_Was that her real name? Huh._ The changeling nodded.

Wilson straightened himself out. "We called her Gaia in my world. Ah, she was a sweet kid," he reminisced fondly. "Confused, in and out of trouble with the law, when I met her. But the Brotherhood saw potential in her. She was probably out youngest recruit."

"So... what happened to her?" Beast Boy asked reluctantly. "In your world I mean."

Painful memories flashed across Wilson's mind.

"_It's too dangerous. We're pulling you out,"_ he heard his own voice saying.

He saw her face, her expression too bright, too eager, too insistent.

"_No! I just need a little more time with them!"_ she argued.

"_Raven knows you're one of us,"_ he warned.

"_She's suspicious of everyone. If I lay low and keep my head down a few days she'll forget all about it."_

He remembered the frustration that tinted his words. _"They are _using_ you, Tara. You're playing right into their hands."_

"_They're not like that!"_ she'd snapped back at him. He remembered the way she'd brushed her hair from her face, her voice softening as she said, _"You... you don't know them..."_

He shook himself, bringing his mind out of the past and back to the present. Beast Boy was still leaning forward on his toes, waiting to hear the fate of his world's Tara Markov.

He didn't like saying it.

"She was... shot in the back by police, trying to protect the Tyrants' escape." He didn't add his suspicions about Red Raven allowing that to happen. Wilson lowered his head. "It was my fault. I should never have let her infiltrate them."

Beast Boy ducked his head, almost ashamed he'd asked now. "Oh..." he said inadequately.

Awkward silence reigned a moment.

Raven straightened, her head tilting up.

"Robin's on his way down," she announced. "He and Cyborg have probably found the Tyrants' hideout. We should get ready to move."

Starfire nodded, turning to go meet the Boy Wonder halfway. Beast Boy hesitated a moment before following suit.

Wilson and Raven lingered a moment.

"Have I assuaged your doubts?" he quipped.

"Not entirely," she told him, dropping her arms and turning to follow her friends, "but I don't think I _dis_trust you now."

He shrugged. "I can be content with that."

They joined up with the others shortly before Robin rounded the corner to meet them.

"The Perez-Hyatt isn't picking up their phone," he reported. "But their website lists plenty of vacancies."

Raven nodded. "That's about the region I sensed them," she confirmed.

"Good. Then we're moving out. You up to teleporting us?"

"My head's a little clearer for now. So yes," she told him.

"Out of curiosity—" interrupted Wilson. "—what's your plan for getting the Tyrants to play along?"

"No new rifts have formed, which means they haven't used what Red Robin and Blackfire had to leave yet," the Boy Wonder explained. "Assuming they don't resort to that, they're effectively stuck here. They might be willing to bargain with us for a way home."

Wilson considered that, scratching his chin. "Perhaps."

"Unless you have other suggestions?" Robin prompted.

The man shook his head. "With that lot, you can never tell what they're going to do, what means they'll respond to." He adjusted the strap of one of his swords. "I hope for your sake they want to get out of this universe as soon as possible. I'd hate for you to save the world only to be stuck still dealing with unwanted houseguests."

-TT-

"This is ridiculous," Arsenal muttered. He threw down another smoke pellet and watched the cloud consume their pursuers. "I swear those are the same cops we ran into outside RailTech."

"I wouldn't be surprised. All squad cars in the area have been alerted to your presence," Red Robin said over the communicator.

Blackfire muttered a Tamaranian curse behind him. Arsenal turned and put a hand on the small of her waist to guide her towards the narrow hallway exit they'd chosen to escape through. Laser bolts from the blinded police officers whizzed past their heads.

"A sprinkler system malfunction would be a really good distraction right now," he hinted strongly.

"Yeah yeah, give me a minute," Tempest groused, fighting with the door controls to seal their exit behind him.

"_Error. Incorrect input,"_ the mechanical voice of the computer intoned.

"Come on you blasted—"

Both of them had to duck behind the doorframe as a laser bolt punched too close to them, popping against the wall. Arsenal raised his communicator.

"Hey, can we get a quick door seal down here, Red?" he asked.

"Everything's on lockdown. I can't even get through the firewalls," Red Robin apologized. "Sorry, but I can't help you with that."

"Allow me,"came Cyber-Vile's emotionless drone. "Please clear the area around the door. It will only take a few moments."

They didn't need to be told twice, and backed up down the hall several paces, Arsenal continuing to hurl smoke bombs and small explosives back down the passage to impede the police's progress.

There was a click and the door slid closed momentarily. Tempest raised his hand, seeking out the pipes beyond the door with his powers. They heard the metallic cluck and watery spritz as sprinkler heads popped off their moorings and sent water gushing down on top of the heads of their pursuers.

"That should slow them down for a bit," said Tempest, turning with Arsenal to join up with Blackfire.

"I do not believe this venture is 'going well', as you say," she said, flying along next to the two boys as they ran for the door on the opposite end.

"Ya think?" Arsenal snarked back.

Ignoring his quip, Blackfire continued, "Perhaps it would be better if we were to give up the search for now and return to the room?"

"I'm inclined to agree with her," Tempest put in. He looked around nervously once they burst through the door, out into the street. It was quiet for now in the immediate area but they could already hear sirens drawing near. "We're drawing too much attention. I'm surprised the Titans haven't gotten in our way a dozen times over by now. There's no way they aren't getting the alerts."

Arsenal took a glance at his communicator, frowning at the static that had replaced Red Robin and Cyber-Vile's voices. "I dunno, if their tech is acting up like ours is the alerts might not be going through." He stowed the device with a worried look. "Raven's not gonna be happy."

"She'll be even _more_ unhappy if we get ourselves caught," Tempest pointed out.

The archer cringed, and then waved them off down one of the side streets. "Right. Okay. Back to the hideout it is. Let's shake 'em off our tail first though. Split up."

Silent nods accompanied his order, and the trio splintered off into difference directions, disappearing into the night.

-TT-

Her soul self broke unexpectedly, spilling them all out onto the street several blocks short of their destination. Most of the Titans managed to regain their footing quickly and looked with concern towards their empath.

"I'm sorry," Raven gasped, panting with the effort as she knelt on the pavement. "I can't... It's... it's too much..."

Echoes of voices and empathic resonance were swelling up inside her head. It was all she could do to keep them from overwhelming her. Let alone spare enough concentration to keep them all together as she teleported across the distance.

"It's all right, Raven," Robin said, stepping up and putting a hand on her shoulder. "We can hoof it from here." He straightened, turning to the changeling. "Beast Boy?"

Beast Boy obediently shifted into bloodhound form and put his nose low to the ground, following the fresh scent of Tempest's distinctive fishy musk. Starfire brushed the dust off her fresh uniform and then helped Raven to her feet, steadying the empath when her knees wobbled uncertainly for a few moments.

The Titans picked their way through the city, keeping their eyes and ears out for any sign of their doubles.

It was Beast Boy who heard her first. The green bloodhound alerted, ears perking up with a small whine.

Everyone tensed and went still. Watching the skies, Wilson spotted the dark silhouette of Blackfire, speeding silently through the air in a very purposeful direction.

"Look up," he warned.

They did so, quickly shying under cover to avoid being spotted. Pressing themselves to the brick wall of the building, they tracked Blackfire's path as she flew past them, disappearing over the rooftops behind.

Robin gave a subtle nod when the Titans looked to him, and quietly they all made their way up to the roof, gaining it just in time to watch Blackfire turn and descend.

She twisted her body upright to drop feet-first to the sidewalk outside a yellow-lit building, the bold black letters above the door that spelled Perez-Hyatt almost invisible in the dimness. A scruffy green dog sitting just outside paused in scratching himself to sniff and acknowledge her. She nodded at him before pulling open the front doors and disappearing inside.

The Titans let out a collective breath.

"I'd say we found them," Cyborg said, briefly checking the readings in his arm.

Raven felt out cautiously with her senses. She didn't have to extend herself far to confirm it. "It's them," she agreed. "They're all there. Except... Arsenal? I think?"

"He'll be back soon enough," said Robin, straightening. "All right Titans, keep your guards up. Let me and Cyborg do the talking." He checked absently through the pouches in his restocked belt as he continued, "We don't know how well they're going to cooperate with us, _if_ they will at all. So be prepared for things to turn ugly."

"Robin?" Starfire called in concern. "What if they refuse to leave?"

Robin grimaced, his face twisting with a sigh. "I don't know," he admitted. "We'll figure something out." Glancing up, he looked to Wilson, who seemed to be keeping to himself a little distance away from the group, his eyes scanning the streets idly. Robin frowned, concern growing in his heart. "Go on ahead," he instructed, waving the Titans off. "I'll be right behind you."

The Titans peeled off, one by one, Raven hesitating a little and casting a worried glance at Robin and Wilson before lifting up and floating down to the street below.

Robin took a few steps closer to the man. "You're not coming?" he asked.

Wilson stirred, eyes fixing on Robin. "You'll have better luck getting the Tyrants on your side if I'm not there," he said. "They wouldn't exactly negotiate with me." He shrugged. "Bad blood you know. Better if I keep out of range."

The Boy Wonder nodded in understanding. He bit his lip. Words were on the tip of his tongue, straining to spill out. He held them back.

Wilson tilted his head at him. "Is there something else?"

He scuffed the roof with the steel toe of his boot. His thoughts were anxious, and at length he let them through the dam in his mouth. "You said... the best case scenario for all this was that our two worlds would merge." He lifted his eyes, reluctantly pressing forward. "What's the worst case scenario?"

Wilson's single eye darkened. "Do you _really_ want to know?" he drawled wearily.

Robin turned his palms out helplessly. "I have to know," he said.

The man sighed deeply. He was loathe to say, but the boy deserved to be told. After a tense silent moment, he spoke again.

"According to our projections and simulations," he said, "the worst possible outcome between our two universes is a quantum collision."

"I take it that's a bad thing?" Robin guessed.

Wilson nodded. "The energy output alone could be enough to obliterate all matter."

He said it so casually, but Robin felt the weight of every word. He shook his head, wearily. "Why didn't you tell us?" he asked, his voice warbling.

"I didn't want to frighten you too much," Wilson replied. "If you were too paralyzed by the fear of what failure could mean, you would never have been able to focus."

"We're a lot stronger than you think," said the Boy Wonder softly, with an edge under the words, a slight trace of irritation and anger. Robin's hands gripped into tight fists by his sides. "And we won't fail," he said with determination.

That earned him a curious side-glance from Wilson, who tilted his head with a familiar quiet intrigue. Robin wondered what Wilson saw in his mind when he looked at him. Was he seeing Robin's darker copy and marveling at the differences between them?

"You should go," the man told him. "You have a job to complete." After a moment he added, genuinely, "Good luck."

Something passed between them unspoken. They looked at each other and, though no words were said, seemed for a moment to have an understanding. Robin nodded in respect, then turned and disappeared after his friends.

-TT-

Her head felt like it was full of mud. The migraine stabbed at her skull unceasingly, digging its way into her scalp. Raven rubbed her temples, trying to focus, and disentangle Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Starfire's empathic signatures from each other in her mind.

She turned to Rpbin when he dropped into place behind them, his quiet worry the only clear signal she could feel through the fog. She frowned at the distraction she sensed from him.

"Something the matter?" she asked.

He was silent, mulling over something a moment, and then waved her off. "I'll tell you later," he said, moving past her to take the lead and start approaching the Perez-Hyatt across the street.

Arsenal had just reached Changeling's guard post. The shape-shifter sniffed him in disinterest, then ignored him, but upon spotting the Titans went rigid, hair standing on end, arching his back and giving a low rumbling growl.

"Woah hey!" Arsenal cried, putting up his hands. "C'mon Greenie, it's me."

Changeling shifted back, still in a feral crouch. "Not you," he snarled. _"Them."_

Arsenal followed the shape-shifter's glare, instinctively reaching for his crossbow upon seeing them. "Oh what the—" he groaned.

"Easy," Robin said, raising his hands. "We don't want to fight."

"Oh yeah?" Arsenal challenged, not relaxing his trigger finger. "Then beat it before I call Red Raven out here to pound you into the grass."

"What's the matter? You scared we'll kick your butt again?" Beast Boy snarked.

Arsenal's face flushed red. "Why you little—!"

"Beast Boy," Robin warned him off sternly, giving him a hard look. Then he stepped forward, into Arsenal's line of fire. "This concerns her too. It concerns all of us." His hands slowly lowered. "Can we talk? Peacefully? Without coming to blows?"

"Unlikely," Arsenal muttered under his breath. After a few moments, when no one had moved or spoken further, he prompted suspiciously, "What about?"

"You want to go home right?" asked Robin. "We can help you."

Arsenal's finger tightened on the trigger as he stiffened defensively. "We don't _need_ your help!" he snapped.

"So y'all _don't_ want this back?" piped up Cyborg, raising his arm to show Arsenal the electromagnetic generator safely clipped there.

The Tyrant hesitated. He bit his lip, frowning.

Robin took another step forward. "Hear us out, and we'll give it you," he promised.

Arsenal seethed with indecision. Changeling looked back and forth between him and the Titans, ears twitching.

A long silence passed. Cyborg held the generator a little higher, offering it like bait to a hungry pack of wolves. Behind him Starfire held her breath in worry, hands up by her chest. Raven was almost hidden under her hood, violet eyes watching with wariness. Robin just waited, staring silently.

Finally, with a sigh of resignation, Arsenal lowered his crossbow.

"She's gonna kill me for this," he muttered. "All right, fine. Come on upstairs. We'll _talk._"

He turned and led the way through the door. Giving a look that clearly said he wasn't sure about this at all, Changeling morphed into a rattlesnake and slithered after the archer.

Raven heard Starfire let out a faint breath of relief next to her, but she didn't relax. She couldn't. She felt her heart deepen its rhythm, beginning to pound loudly inside her chest, as the Titans followed Arsenal into the lobby. The dim yellow light of the desk lamps glowed ominously. The ding of the elevator sounded small and far away. Her feet tingled with every step as they trumped up the carpeted stairs.

She could feel the Tyrants in the periphery of her senses, their presences blurring together in her empathic sight, becoming confused with those of her friends and drowned by the noise she could hear all around her now, clanging, pulsing with the throbs of her headache.

Azar she hoped the Tyrants would play along and close the portal. She didn't know how much more of this she could take.

No more time to think on it now. They were outside the door to the Tyrants' room. Arsenal reluctantly raised a fist and knocked, clearing his throat with a nervous cough.

"Hey Rae?" he called timidly. "We uh... we got company."

Someone opened the door from the other side. It swung open to reveal Blackfire, whose eyes widened as she floated back, numbly allowing Arsenal, Changeling, and the Titans to file in.

Raven steeled herself, and raised her head, meeting the hot red eyes that burned across the room at them.


	13. Tensions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're coming around to the home stretch kids. Hang onto your seats.

The air in the room was like a taut piano wire, ready to snap. Raven could feel the rolling hostility rumbling off her counterpart in steady vibes, distinct in the empathic fog that drowned the room.

"What," growled Red Raven flatly, "is this?" Her eyes were solid demon red, glowing ominously at them.

Unafraid, Robin stepped forward. "Negotiations," he said simply. "The portal they—" He jerked his head to indicate Red Robin and Blackfire. "—tore to get into this dimension needs to close. _You're_ going to help us."

The glow faded from Red Raven's eyes, though they continued to glare mightily. She crossed her arms, leaning back with a haughty look. "Why should I do _that?_" she demanded.

Cyborg stepped forward on cue, unclipping the electromagnetic generator from his arm and holding it aloft. The Tyrants, minus Arsenal and Changeling, stiffened in recognition. Even Red Raven couldn't hide the interest that lit up in her eyes at seeing it.

"Because we've got this," Cyborg said, tone almost singsong and smug.

"And we're willing to trade it for your assurance that you'll leave once everything's said and done," Robin continued, with a confidence he hoped sounded sincere enough. Something about the way Red Raven was eyeing him unnerved him, and he resisted the urge to reach up and protect his throat.

Red Raven kept her eyes pinned on Robin, straining her empathic senses beyond the confines of the room. Searching. She wasn't much worried about the Titans posing a threat, but if a certain someone from the Brotherhood of Justice was out there...

But past the noise and fog of the roomful of Tyrants and Titans it was clear. No sign of Swordstroke. She probed a few moments more, suspicious, making sure, then relaxed slightly, bringing her full attention back to the room with a snort. "Some negotiation," she huffed. "You barge in and make demands and then just expect me to agree to them?" She addressed Robin directly, looking down her nose at him. "You're an even bigger fool than I thought."

The words grated on Starfire's ears like rocks grinding on concrete. "Mind your tongue," she growled, clenching her fists, "or I will remove it."

Red Raven looked askance at the girl's unexpectedly hostile tone, a flicker of offense burning in her heart. Blackfire's counterpart had clearly yet to learn her place. "Yeesh, down tiger," she condescended. "Keep your claws in. Your boyfriend and I are 'negotiating'," she said, making the air quotes around the last word.

Starfire wasn't cowed by her words, which annoyed her, but Robin took another step forward and made her attention return to him. "I need an answer," he demanded. "Are you going to take my offer and leave or are you going to make this difficult for everyone?"

The impudence of the boy. As if his pitiful band of do-rights could ever be more than a nuisance. Red Raven ground her teeth together. Her eyes flicked towards the electromagnetic generator, seeming to mull over her options. The Titans having possession of their best ticket home put some unfamiliar queasy sensation inside her heart and she didn't like it. She quashed the feeling with a mask of arrogance.

"You know... we've still got Cyber-Vile's portal ripper," she said casually. "What makes you think we need that?" she asked, nodding in Cyborg's direction.

Cyborg gestured at Cyber-Vile in turn. "Yeah, he can tell you exactly why you don't wanna use that thing again."

The Tyrants turned to Cyber-Vile, confused.

"Cy?" Arsenal asked.

A small whir and internal clicks preceded the half-robot's statement. "Apologies: I had been keeping the information from you because I did not believe it to be important at the time," he said. "The situation has since changed. I had not had the chance to inform you before."

"What is he talking about?" Blackfire warbled, looking worried.

Raven broke in. "_The portal._ The one leaking electromagnetism and empathic feedback?" she prompted, annoyed. Her eyes met Red Raven's across the room. "You've had a headache all day, right?" she asked, tapping a finger against her own temple.

It was pounding at the entirety of her skull at that very moment, the reminder of which made her rather surly. "Yeah?" Red Raven said.

Raven folded her arms. "Well that's because your universe is currently being sucked into ours," she stated matter-of-factly.

"What? That's ridiculous," the demoness snorted.

"It's true. Ask your robo-help," Beast Boy piped up.

Red Raven rolled her eyes and angled her body to face Cyber-Vile. "Please tell me this idiot Other Me is spouting off nonsense," she said.

The half-robot hesitated significantly.

The Tyrants shared uneasy looks amongst themselves. As the silence grew longer they began shifting on their feet.

"It's nonsense, right?" Arsenal finally asked, voice nervous. "I mean, even Red Robin can't have screwed up that badly."

Red Robin scowled at the remark, but pressed on with his own urge for confirmation. "Cyber-Vile, is what she's saying true?" he asked. "Is... is our universe spilling into this one?"

Cyber-Vile seemed to come out of his own thoughts, gears clicking again. "Affirmative. Whether due to the unstable nature of the rift or perhaps because of some unknown factor of quantum atomic attraction between this dimension and ours, they are, in fact, converging," he explained. "Current rate of particle acceleration is one point oh seven three eight and increasing over time, doubling at a rate of one subatomic particle every-"

"I get it, I get it," Red Robin interrupted, waving his hands to cut him off.

The half-robot shifted slightly to address Red Raven. "In any case, the usage of the dimensional portal ripper now would only aggravate the unstable conditions between our two worlds and increase the rate at which they are conjoining."

"I thought you said the risk was lower if I was the one dialing in," she fumed.

"That was before my analysis was complete. No amount of careful calibration will mitigate the portal ripper's adverse effects now," Cyber-Vile admitted. "Statement: We will still have to acquire another electromagnetic generator, as was previously discussed, or we will have to leave through the original rift made by subjects Red Robin and Blackfire."

"And this is the only electromagnetic generator around for miles I can promise you that," Cyborg put in smugly.

Red Raven glared.

Monitoring the empathic climate of the room Raven almost relaxed at the uncertainty she could feel from the Tyrants, the confidence emanating from her friends. Maybe they had her.

Maybe not.

"I don't buy it," Red Raven spat, leaning back.

"What, you think we'd make up an end-of-the-world scenario just because we want to get rid of you?" Beast Boy snarked.

She gave the changeling a seething look that Raven didn't feel comfortable with at all. "I think you're full of crap about being our only way to get home," she said.

"We're not generally in the business of lying to get what we want," Raven butted in. Her hand inched out in a shielding gesture and her eyes held a look of warning. _Don't_, they telegraphed to her evil counterpart. Raven stepped slightly back behind Cyborg, to draw Red Raven's attention back towards the electromagnetic generator, back towards their bargaining chip. "This _is_ your ticket home," she emphasized vehemently. "This, or the other portal."

"And we'll be watching _that _around the clock too, so don't think you can reject our generous offer and then sneak out that way," Cyborg warned.

Tension crackled in the room a moment, Red Raven holding herself back from giving in to demonic rage. She didn't want to risk accidentally destroying the generator.

_Can't use my mirror, can't just build or steal a new generator..._ she mused. (She was still incredulous that the tech facilities here didn't have what they needed. What kind of dump were the Titans running?) If they beat the Titans down and made a break for the rift themselves they could... _Easily become a target for an ambush from Swordstroke,_ the thought finished in her head before she could complete it. Her brows furrowed. _Much as I hate to admit it... I think they might have me in a corner._

Again, that gave her a feeling she didn't appreciate.

While she steamed, Tempest hesitantly decided to speak for her. "So what do we have to do to get that back again?" he asked.

"Clean up the mess you made," Raven answered bluntly. She looked to her counterpart with an even expression. "Help me close that portal, before it's too late."

Red Raven gave a snorting chuckle. "Is that it?" she scoffed.

The silence that followed answered her question. Red Raven continued to mull furiously over the situation a moment, exploring in her mind ways to weasel out of the Titans' ultimatum. Maybe if she played nice...

"All right..." she said. She jabbed a hand out, palm up, extending it towards Cyborg. "Give me the generator and I'll do it."

Seemingly reading her thoughts, perhaps outright sensing how she was trying to get her hands on the device, Robin growled, "You'll get it back _after_ you and Raven have sealed up the rift."

Fuming now, angry that the boy had seen right through her, Red Raven snapped, "No, we'll get it back _now_. Or there is no deal. And you're on your own with saving the world or whatever."

Red Robin tried to break in. "Raven, that's—"

Her head snapped in his direction, a withering glare in her eyes. "What? They're the heroes. Isn't it supposed to be _their_ job to save the day and keep the people safe?" she said mockingly.

"This isn't a game!" Robin suddenly yelled, frustrated. Was Red Raven really going to just stand there _sulking_ while all of reality crumbled around them, just because she didn't want to cooperate? He was incredulous how anyone could be so childish and selfish. "The whole universe is in danger!" he reminded her. "Don't you care about _anyone_ back in your world?"

Her whole expression soured at him. "Save your heroic platitudes, I don't need them," she sneered. She lit upon a sudden thought, and the realization ebbed away at her unease, slowly replacing it. The Titans hadn't just gone to the rift and forced it closed themselves. They had come to her. Demanded her.

They weren't certain of their own capabilities.

"But you apparently need me," she mused aloud.

Her senses caught a flash of dismay, an edge of desperation, behind the mental walls of Red Robin's counterpart. She felt the unconscious tide of fate turning in her favor, felt her body relaxing with control. She leaned back on her heels.

"Seems like we're the ones with all the bargaining power here," she said smugly.

Robin tightened his fists, trying not to betray his unease. "You're. Leaving," he repeated through gritted teeth. "You're coming with us to the portal, sealing it, and then you're getting the_ hell_ out of my city."

Why were all their pathetic do-right counterparts so _defiant?_ Red Raven's grin melted into a scowl. "How about this instead?" she threatened, biting back all the insults she wanted to hurl at the boy. Stupid, stubborn fool. "How about... I just _take_ the generator from you, let _you_ deal with that first portal, and then leave at my leisure, whenever I _damn well please_?"

She spat the words at his face, closing the distance, getting uncomfortably nearer. All parties tensed. Robin's hands twitched towards his belt as he took an unconscious step backward.

Red Raven stared him down. She made a motion as if to lift her hand.

Starfire moved first.

Quick as a flash she snatched the generator from Cyborg. It was flat on her open palm for just one split second before she charged a starbolt.

The green glowing orb consumed the device, shattering it, obliterating it.

It disappeared with the glow and the momentary look of horror in Starfire's wide eyes.

Shock reverberated around the room. All eyes gaped at Starfire, incredulous.

"You—you—" Red Raven sputtered, veins bugling.

Starfire just straightened and crossed her arms. "Now you will _have_ to depart through the original portal," she said, coolly composed.

Red Raven was visibly shaking with restrained anger. Her fingers curled. Her eyes narrowed hatefully.

"Why you… little… _bitch!_" she snarled.

She flung out a burst of dark matter, only for a black barrier to spring up in-between and absorb it.

"_Don't_ call her that," Raven hissed, lowering her raised arm.

Her opposite looked like she was using every once of her willpower to keep from clawing Starfire's face off. Raven had a brief, traitorous thought to use her powers to tip her other self over the edge, repay her for earlier that afternoon, but she quickly smothered that thought. She watched the back of Robin's head, mentally pleading with him to diffuse things somehow.

Robin did speak up, while Red Raven was still quivering and hesitating to attack. "We'll be outside when you're ready to play along," he said. "You have ten minutes."

He nodded to Raven.

Relieved, Raven enveloped them in a dark blanket, already moving them down into the lobby.

"_Come back here you little__—"_ they heard Red Raven screech after them.

-TT-

Their feet found the solid tile floor of the lobby. All they heard from the rest of Red Raven's outburst was a heavy dull _thud!_ from above them. Then, silence.

Raven shuddered, curling into herself.

"I am sorry," whispered Starfire, looking apologetically towards Robin. "I did not know what else to do."

"It's all right," Robin waved her off. "Don't—" He sighed heavily. "Don't worry about it now." He put his face in his hands, rubbing his temples. "I don't think she was going to cooperate unless we gave her no other choice," he muttered. He sighed again. "Not one of my better negotiations."

"Yeah... I think we just pissed her off," agreed Beast Boy.

"What happens now?" asked Cyborg, watching the ceiling warily.

Robin shook his head. "I... I don't know. I need to think."

He paced off, walking back and forth in tight circles. The Titans fidgeted, watching him, waiting for direction. Starfire's expression filled with worry at the distress she could see on his face.

At length, she reached out and touched his arm, bringing his pacing to a stop. He didn't say anything at first.

Then, finally, he exhaled.

"If they're not here in ten minutes, we'll seal the rift ourselves," he decided. "I'd rather trap the Tyrants here than wait around for them to decide if they'll screw us over or not."

"It won't be easy to keep them imprisoned," Raven pointed out.

"No. It won't be," he agreed. "And that's assuming we can catch them in the first place. But the immediate threat will be dealt with." He looked to her. "Can you handle it by yourself?" he asked.

Raven bit her lip. Quite frankly, she didn't think so. But her feelings were irrelevant. If Red Raven wasn't going to help, it was up to her. There was no one else.

"I'll have to handle it," she said.

Do or die, as the saying went.

Robin nodded. "Cyborg? Can you keep an eye on the rift?"

"On it," Cyborg said, keeping on eye on his raised arm as he walked off. "And in the meantime I need to have a work with the receptionist," he said, eyeing the diamond necklace on the desk next to the man's elbow.

Raven closed her eyes to meditate. Starfire's hands slide gently around Robin's arm. He leaned against her and they settled in to wait.

-TT-

"I'm going to kill them." Red Raven stalked from one end of the room to the other, fists clenched, body crackling. "I'm going to _kill_ them."

Attempting to be helpful, Blackfire put up her hands plaintively. "Be calm, Raven. There is not much space for you to be doing the letting out of steam," she said, glancing towards the plush chair that was upside-down on the opposite end of the room from where it had been.

Red Raven ignored her, continuing to prowl and sputter.

"Of all the impudent—the _nerve_ of that little—"

"Raven. Love. Calm down," said Red Robin, much more bluntly than Blackfire. He was getting a headache just watching her.

Pink eyes flicked towards him briefly. "I think I hate you in this reality more than I do in ours," she said.

Deflating, the boy slumped into himself. "Gee. Thanks."

Red Raven resumed walking. "I'm going to kill them."

"Yes, we've established that," piped up Tempest wearily, coming to stand in front of her and placing his hands on her shoulders. "But _before_ you kill them, what are we going to do?"

Red Raven finally got hold of herself then, blowing out a puff of air and ceasing to crackle.

The Tyrants breathed a silent sigh of relief.

"Dude, is she always this scary?" whispered Changeling aside to Arsenal.

"Worst I've seen her in a while," Arsenal whispered back. "Still, you gotta admire how ballsy Other Blackfire is."

Changeling kept his voice down, eyeing the demoness. "Don't let _her_ hear you say that."

Arsenal muttered, "Believe me, I won't."

-TT-

The minutes stretched out, silent, interminable.

Cyborg frowned at his readings. Beast Boy sat on the floor, bouncing his knees idly. Raven floated, healing herself, clearing her energies. Robin had an arm around Starfire's waist and stared off into the distance, distracted.

She pressed soft kisses into his hair, a quiet comforting.

Raven raised her head at a sudden buzz on her radar. "Robin," she called in warning.

He and Starfire broke apart, and everyone straightened up as the echoes of footsteps sounded from the stairwell.

The Tyrants appeared, Red Raven emerging at first, at their head. None of her earlier fury showed through her cold expression, but Raven kept her guard up.

"If we help you seal the rift," Red Raven demanded, "how exactly are you planning to get us out of this miserable world?"

"It's a big door," said Raven flatly. "It's not exactly going to be quick to close. You'll have plenty of time to slip through before it does."

"So that's it then. We save the world and then you promptly boot us out the door?"

The Titans made no response.

Red Raven crossed her arms with a shrug. "Fine. Sounds reasonable." She turned to her team. "What do you guys think? You up for saving the universe?" she asked with dripping sarcasm.

"Can't be any worse than teaming up with HIVE Hero Academy to stop your dad," Arsenal muttered.

The demoness looked back at the Titans with an eerie smile.

"Sounds like we're in."

"Then there's no time to lose," said Robin. "Raven, Red Raven—" He jerked his head at each of them in turn. "Teleport."

Raven cringed at his tone but her Tyrant double didn't snap back, merely gestured and spoke in a sing-song. "Gather 'round kids! We're going to have to get a little intimate here."

Both groups looked reluctant, but obediently gathered together in a large huddle. Starfire quietly but deliberately positioned herself between Robin and the nearest Tyrants. The cyborgs exchanged wary glances. Beast Boy brushed up against someone's elbow and looked up to find himself between Red Robin and Arsenal, both glaring down at him.

"Heh. Hi," he squeaked.

Raven avoided her counterpart's eyes as she shuffled to the center of the group.

"Ready to go, 'sister'?" teased Red Raven.

Raven ignored the comment. "Azarath..." she said.

"Metrion..." the Teen Tyrant chimed in.

Red and black energy began to swirl around them.

"Zinthos!" both girls shouted.

The energies spiraled together, enveloping them in a ball and spiriting them away.

-TT-

A sudden shudder ran under their feet. Those gathered around took nervous, skittering steps back as the metal groaned. The red-haired woman standing before the portal grimaced, struggling with some unseen weight.

Seeing this, Dr. Light stepped forward.

"All right, that's enough," she said, placing her hand on the woman's shoulder. "Don't exhaust yourself, Circe."

The woman lowered her hands, panting. "I am sorry," she said. "The mystic energies will not respond to me."

The Tower rumbled again, a faint force pulling at them, drawing them in.

"It is dangerous to remain here," warned Psimon.

Dr. Light nodded, turning to the rest of her team. "Start evacuating to the Void Dimension. It's all up to Swordstroke now."

She paid the rift a nervous backwards glance. The scale of what they were facing was incomprehensible. Even with the Brotherhood's best, most coordinated efforts, it was likely they could only save a small handful of people. And time was running out for them to do even that.

She stared into the portal intently, as if to see past it to the other side, quelling her fear with a prayer and a quick plea.

"C'mon Slade..." she said in a low whisper. "Don't let me down."

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you think Red Raven gave in a little too easily... you are absolutely right and that will be important later. ;)


	14. Turn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my gosh I'm so excited. We're almost at the finish line guys. It's gonna get a little bit crazy.
> 
> I won't keep you long. On to the chapter!

The bubble broke apart, dumping them awkwardly into the street.

"Sorry," Raven apologized again, ashen white and panting. "I'm sorry. I held out as long as I could," she told Robin.

"_What was that?!"_ screeched Red Raven indignantly, before Robin could respond. "We're nowhere _near_ where we were aiming! That was pathetic!"

Raven regained her breath, leveling a glare at her opposite.

"You let go first," she growled.

Red Raven's scowl etched deeper into her face.

"Let's get this over with," she spat, stalking forward stiff-legged to the head of the group. The Tyrants filed obediently after her.

Raven waited until they were out of earshot. But just barely. "We shouldn't trust her," she hissed at Robin immediately. "Not for a minute. She's not going to just help us without trying to get something out of it for herself."

"Like what?" asked Beast Boy.

The empath hesitated, then shook her head. "I don't know."

"I _don't_ trust her," Robin assured them, watching her whispering to her team out of the corner of his eye. "But we can't exactly go back on our offer now." He gestured quietly with his hand. "Keep your eyes on her."

"Hey hero nerds!" the annoyed voice of Arsenal called after them. "I thought this was supposed to be urgent."

The Titans hastened to catch up to their criminal counterparts.

-TT-

It didn't take long for the group to reach their destination, trotting in short bursts, walking quickly, neither side wanting to be caught with their backs to the other.

Cyborg fell into step beside Raven, seeing the beleaguered look on her face.

"How's your head?" he asked.

"Honestly I'm actually kind of numb to it right now," she replied self-deprecatingly. "It just blends into all the background noise." She shook her head. "There's so much empathic static I can barely tell you're there." Her senses were slogging through a thick gray fog, and even though Cyborg was right next to her he was indistinguishable from the blur and fuzz surrounding her mind.

"No kidding," Cyborg said, squinting a bit himself. The extra shielding he'd added to his systems at the Tower were helping, but the closer they got to the portal, the more interference glitched across his visual feed.

He could only assume Cyber-Vile and Red Raven felt the same. They were at the head of their odd little procession, conversing quietly with each other like their Titan counterparts. The other Tyrants were nearer at hand, with the exception of Blackfire, hanging back at their tail end.

Starfire fell back to keep an eye on her.

Blackfire started from the daze she'd been in, lost inside her thoughts, and gave her counterpart a sorrowful look.

"You should not have done that," she whispered.

Guessing correctly that she was referring to the incident with the generator, Starfire replied, "I did not wish for her to have her way."

Blackfire just shook her head, drifting away. Starfire might have called after her, but Arsenal in front of them stopped dead, bringing them to a halt.

All of them had stopped, in fact, and stood gaping up at the rift.

"Woah," Red Raven said.

It towered above their heads, huge and imposing, clearly visible despite the night's darkness, and glimmering in the halo of orange streetlights. A quiet rushing sound emanated from it, like the roar of a distant wind. All space seemed distorted around it; even the ground beneath their feet felt uneven and transitory, like it was shifting under them. Light swirled into its depths. It was strangely... beautiful.

Red Robin raised a hand that trembled slightly. "Okay... _that_ didn't look like that when we left it," he said, almost embarrassed.

Cyborg ran a quick scan. The rift's opening had continued drifting and twisting. Its epicenter had moved up above the rooftops, shifted left away from the street. Looking closer, they could _see_ into the other universe as though through a thick gray and blurry screen. No sooner had Cyborg brought up his readings than his arm beeped with multiple warnings, loud and insistent.

At almost the same time a shudder seemed to pass through the air, vibrating the ground, jostling their clothes.

The emerald necklace around Blackfire's neck twitched, shook, rose away from her skin, and then abruptly broke free, shooting forward. Blackfire 'eeeped' and slapped her neck a fraction too late; the necklace had already disappeared into the portal's depths.

Cyborg lowered his arm.

"We gotta hurry," he said in a rush.

Robin was already scanning ahead. "We can get a better position up there," he said, pointing to one of the roofs.

"You mean _closer_ to that thing?" Red Raven asked incredulously. "Not happening. My headache's bad enough."

The Boy Wonder had to physically restrain himself from grabbing the girl's arm and yanking it in exasperation. "We don't have time to argue!" he snapped, already moving off the street. "Do you want to go home or not?" he challenged her over his shoulder.

She muttered something indistinguishable under her breath.

"Statement: Physical proximity to the point of singularity will decrease the energy output required to collapse it," Cyber-Vile put in. "I believe attaining higher ground will in fact be preferable."

Red Raven sighed and waved the rest of her team forward tiredly, motioning for them to follow after Robin.

They crowded at the doorway, jostling each other to get through. Starfire rose a few inches from the ground, thinking to fly up to the rooftop and save herself the trouble. She dropped back down immediately with a tiny shriek as she felt a strong tug pulling her in the portal's direction.

"I wouldn't do that, Star," Cyborg warned her belatedly. "Anything hanging loose is liable to get sucked in."

As if to emphasize his point, a soda can came rattling down the sidewalk, bounced up once and sailed neatly through the rift.

Timidly, Starfire hung close to the wall as she filed after Arsenal, Cyborg's shielding hand on her back, guiding her inside.

Raven had stood where she'd stopped, entranced by the portal yet again, her senses drowned out by the haze until a soft tugging on her cloak from Beast Boy drew her out of it.

"You keep staring at that thing," he whispered.

The empath could feel her eyes tugging back towards it. She forced herself to look forward. "I... I don't know why," she admitted, keeping her voice low so only he could hear. "Something just... it resonates... and my headache almost goes away." She made a face. "I'm sorry. I'm not making sense."

He patted her shoulder comfortingly. "Let's just get it closed, okay?" he encouraged.

Quietly, they joined the rest of the group, now moving single file up the narrow staircase inside the building. Tempest, Red Raven, and Red Robin were ahead of them, and they saw Tempest flinch and freeze in place as Red Raven batted a sharp, annoyed arm into Red Robin's chest from three steps up.

"Would you watch it!" she snapped.

"I didn't even touch you!" he protested.

She huffed. "Whatever."

"Don't 'whatever' me, I felt that push just now." He stopped on the lower step, clenching his fists and glaring at her. "Get out of my head," he growled.

She stared at him and they seemed to wrestle in a silent battle of wits for a moment. The she turned up her chin. "Fine," she said hotly, turning on her heel to continue up the stairs. "It's not even any fun in there anymore."

"How horribly tragic," came the sarcastic reply.

He stomped up the stairs. The other three stood there awkwardly at the bottom a minute, Tempest seeming reluctant to follow. He held them up in the stairwell an uncomfortable a few seconds, until the pounding footsteps faded away.

Silence followed.

Beast Boy rubbed his neck. "So, uh… what's their deal, exactly?" he asked, eyes pinched.

Tempest waved his hand dismissively. "They dated once," he said, as though that explained everything. "Off and on for about two months. Fought like hellcats. I don't know _any_ two people who made each other more miserable."

"So why did they even date in the first place?" Raven asked, though she had a snaking suspicion that Red Raven's empathic manipulations must have played a part.

Tempest rubbed his chin. "Well, she _is_ pretty good in bed," he mused.

"How do you even _know_ th—?" Raven cut herself off, shaking her head and hands. "You know what? Never mind. I don't want to know," she said, dropping her hands back inside her cloak.

Tempest shrugged and proceeded up the stairs.

Another awkward silence.

"Wow Raven. Evil You is... kind of a skank," Beast Boy said.

Raven shuddered, vowing to erase her memory of the conversation once all of this was over. As soon as she could figure out how.

Legal adulthood in Azarath was at sixteen wasn't it? Maybe a stiff drink would black out this memory.

She comforted herself with that thought as she ascended to the roof, and the waiting Tyrants and Titans.

-TT-

Red Raven had almost forgotten what it felt like to not have a headache. She rubbed her eyes again, willing the white spots floating in front of her vision to disappear.

After a moment or two her eyes finally focused.

She sighed in relief, then turned with a faint smile to her Titan counterpart, just now reaching the top of the stairs.

"You have enough power and focus for this, Other Me?"

Raven's expression didn't change. "Do you?" she challenged back.

The demoness smiled an eerie, sweet smile. "I wouldn't worry about me," she said lightly, already shifting to face forward.

Robin was shoving against the roof-access door. It didn't want to budge at first, rusted hinges making a dull shunting sound as the Boy Wonder pushed. Arsenal joined in the effort and the door finally budged.

No sooner had it done so, than it was yanked forward by an unseen force from the other side, banging the wall loudly. Robin and Arsenal stumbled, startled, but quickly recovered. The already-tense nerves of the group took a few more seconds to wind down.

The gentle roar of the portal was louder here. Everything else was unnaturally still. Even the rumbles and shudders that sounded through the building, displacing their balance and footing, were oddly muted.

Cautiously, they took the small flight of concrete steps that brought them up to the flat of the rooftop.

The portal's shimmering surface was mere yards from them, its center about twenty feet above their heads. This close to it they could almost pick out small details from the other side.

All eyes gaped. All steps taken towards it were hesitant and uncertain. Red Raven seemed to be staring at the rift with more than a little interest. As the group spread out, intermingled, Robin noticed Cyborg squinting as though it was hard to see, the loose arrows in Arsenal's quiver trembling and threatening to pull free, and a tingle up and down his arms and across his skin that raised the hairs on his head like some kind of static charge.

He didn't see it coming. He was watching Red Raven. They were _all_ watching Red Raven.

They should have watched the others too.

Raven was the only one who had any warning. She was watching Changeling from the corner of her eye, not liking how near he walked, too close to her shoulder, his breathing heavy and panting. Her own shape-shifter was on the other side of the group now, just past Arsenal, in-between the archer and Starfire. The cloud of empathic noise was nigh-overwhelming but for an instant she felt... _something. _A ripple. A pulse. A brief, clear jolt of fear. It hadn't emanated from one of them naturally. It felt generated, artificial.

Like the rage Red Raven had flooded her with back during their fight.

She stopped in her tracks, bewildered, and her split second of hesitation cost them.

Before she could call out a warning, Tempest lunged forward, grabbing Starfire's arm and yanking it roughly behind her back, the curved portion of his left-hand hook flashing up to scrape dangerously against her throat.

"Aaaah!"

She cried out in pain, her whole face grimacing.

Panic thudded into Robin's ribcage, hearing the sound of her distress from behind. "Starfi—!" he cried, already whirling around, but before the motion was complete Cyber-Vile's arm snapped up, snagging him harshly around the neck and pulling him back. Robin's hands grasped for purchase as he was pinned to the half-robot's steel chest, the familiar whir of a sonic cannon sounding in his ear, inches from his head.

Almost the same moment Raven felt a rush of displaced air, felt a tightness constricting her limbs. She gasped helplessly as the green coils of the python crushed the breath from her lungs. Across from her she could hear Beast Boy yelp; Arsenal had spring-loaded a net arrow that entangled him instantly.

Cyborg was the last ensnared, and because of his faster-than-thought processing was a little more prepared, throwing off Red Robin's attempt to grab his arm and tossing the Teen Tyrant aside. It was only when he felt the heat of a charged starbolt tingling at the back of his head that he froze, glaring at Blackfire over his shoulder.

_That won't kill me and you know it_, his eyes seemed to say. Knock him out sure. But she'd have to get past his sturdy outer plating to _really_ do some damage.

"Please do not struggle," she whispered, her expression pinched and almost apologetic. "Tempest will most assuredly kill my counterpart."

That, more than anything else, sapped away the fight in him, as he looked forward worriedly at Starfire. Tempest's grip was harsh, Starfire's arm pulled up close to the breaking point, and she was biting her lip to keep from crying. His shoulders slumped as Red Robin got back to his feet, seizing his other arm.

Raven recovered from the sudden turn first, shooting daggers at her counterpart with her eyes.

"What are you _doing?!_" she demanded with a hiss, jerking indignantly in Changeling's coils.

Red Raven smirked, turning with her hands on her hips. "C'mon, Raven. Don't you know a double cross when you see it?" she taunted.

"We had a deal!" Robin burst out angrily. His blood boiled hot. He jerked his head towards the rift, clawing at Cyber-Vile's arm. "Your way home is _right there! _ You can just go! What do you _get_ out of this?! Some sick sense of self-gratification?"

The demoness rolled her eyes at him with a withering, unpleasant look.

"Azar, your voice is so _annoying,_" she complained. She glanced up towards Cyber-Vile. "Feel free to squeeze him a little tighter, Cy."

"_What are you hoping to accomplish?_" Robin yelled, fuming in every pore of his body.

"Punishment, obviously," she said, shrugging. "That little stunt you pulled? Put me in a very bad mood. So I'm killing one of you. Or all of you. Or maybe just tormenting some of you. I hadn't decided the specifics yet." As she talked, she paced casually in front of them. She stopped in front of Starfire, giving the Tamaranian a cold look. "You I'm definitely killing," she declared. Her teeth ground together. "_Slowly,_" she emphasized.

Starfire held back a whimper and flinched.

Robin yanked on the arm around his neck, jerking towards Starfire in protest. "You selfish sadistic—"

Red Raven rounded on him, stepping back across the short distance in a blink, her snarling face inches from his, her pink eyes flashing, something angry and evil in their depths.

"_No one _makes a fool of me," she growled, low and dangerous, jabbing an index finger at him. Robin shrunk back as much as he could from the raw hostility she radiated. Red Raven just grabbed his chin with pinching iron fingers, leaning in closer. "You open your mouth again... I rip your lungs out through your chest," she threatened.

Robin said nothing in reply, glaring at her in defiance.

Red Raven let go, stepping back. She glanced at Tempest.

"Slice her neck open if anyone moves," she ordered.

"R-right," Tempest acknowledged, tightening his grip on Starfire, the edge of his hook digging a fraction deeper into her skin. Starfire squeezed her eyes closed, wincing.

Robin strained to see her past Cyber-Vile's bulk.

Behind them, at the back of the group, Raven clenched her fists and her jaw. Her mind raced in circles. _One well-placed spell is all I need_, she thought, imagining her powers ripping Red Raven's head clean off. She looked at her friends worriedly. _But with a blade at Star's throat and Evil Cy holding a cannon to Robin's face..._

And straining her eyes ahead it looked like Arsenal had an arrow to Beast Boy's head too.

_He's closer to Star... if he can morph out of that net... but he'd have to be really quick. And how would I let him know?_

She supposed she could morph him. She'd learned that trick once. But given that it had been Malchior to teach her that spell she'd deliberately forgotten it, hadn't used it since. Could she even pull it off again? And how would Beast Boy know to free Star if she did?

She couldn't risk it.

Her opposite, meanwhile, was pacing away from them, walking towards the portal. She was staring at it, eyes transfixed on its shimmering surface, almost... enthralled.

_What is she...?_ Raven wondered.

Red Raven seemed to be mesmerized, under the same spell that affected Raven when she looked too long at the rift. For a long moment, all she did was peer.

The other Tyrants began to grow nervous.

"What is she waiting for?" Red Robin mumbled under his breath.

Arsensal shifted on his feet, gripping the bit of the net he held tighter. "C'mon, Rae," he called, looking everywhere but directly at her. "Let's just get it over with and go home."

She didn't appear to hear him, reaching out a hand to brush the surface of the rift with the tip of her finger. It rippled like disturbed water at her touch, sending shudders radiating under their feet.

The echoes didn't die for quite some time.

The demoness tilted her head, fascinated. "I wonder..." she mused to herself.

"Please," squeaked Blackfire fearfully. The starbolt she held at Cyborg's head wavered. "Let us finish our business here so we may leave," she begged.

Red Raven stepped back, still looking at the portal. "Hey Cy," she called, "what did you say would happen when this thing reaches critical again?"

Cyber-Vile straightened behind Robin, raising his head in a business-like fashion.

"The sub-atomic quantum particles that make up our respective universes will be smashed together. The energy released by such a collision may cause them to merge, intermingle, or continue to crash against each other in a chain-reaction that would spread—"

"What would happen if we opened the rift wider?"

The half-robot looked briefly and vaguely miffed at the interruption. "The rate of acceleration would increase," he said.

"And that would... what? Make a bigger boom?" Red Raven asked, looking at him over her shoulder.

Cyber-Vile's sensors picked up an increase in Robin's heartbeat. He noted the fact with disinterest. "When the dimensions collide, the physical results will be quite adverse," he explained. "There will be violent geological and stellar upheaval. Stars may be caused to collapse or go supernova. Planets will most likely crash into each other. Galaxies will crowd their neighbors. The death toll for organic life will be astronomical."

"Major bad news, we get it," Red Robin said flatly.

Ignoring him, Cyber-Vile continued. "Response to inquiry: The damage will be proportional to the rate of acceleration and the energy released by the collision." Circuits clicked inside his head. "The survivability of such a scenario is low to minimum, and would require a substantive deacceleration of the conjoining before it occurs."

Red Raven's eyes were back on the portal. "So... someone could control the collision that way?" she asked.

Raven stiffened.

Cyber-Vile's processors whirred a long moment, a blank look on his face. "I do not comprehend the meaning of your question," he said at length.

The demoness turned around.

"I mean," she said, "that if someone were powerful enough, they could slow down the universes so that they don't make quite so loud a bang?"

Alarm bells rang through Raven's head. What was her double trying to do?

Again, Cyber-Vile took a few moments to answer, something akin to confusion on his face.

"...Theoretically."

"Huh." Red Raven turned back to the portal, deep in thought.

A single destructive act, far surpassing anything in her father's power. A collision so powerful that realities cracked. Worlds shattered. The upheaval of galaxies. An entire new universe sent into chaos, terrified, thrown into fear.

Of her.

The portal's gentle roar called to her like a siren's song.

A creepy grin spread across her face.

"Well I've never crashed two universes into each other before," she said with a shrug.

Her hands raised, crimson energy burning around them, and the portal's roar grew louder, the edges widening considerably at Red Raven's touch.

There was an immediate and palpable freak-out among the rest of them.

"Raven—"

"What—"

"You can't be—"

"_Are you an idiot?!" _Cyborg roared, jerking so hard Blackfire and Red Robin almost lost hold of him. "No matter how much you slow down your universe, they're still going to collide!"

"I know," she said in a sing-song.

"Woah, woah!" Arsenal spoke up, jabbing agitatedly with his crossbow. "We did _not_ agree to this, Raven!" Beast Boy shifted, attempting to rise, but Arsenal shoved him back down with his foot. "I did not agree to cause the apocalypse!" he cried.

"Call it an executive decision," she said, not even looking back.

Arsenal sputtered, open-mouthed.

"You cannot do that!" blurted Starfire, her eyes saucer wide and terrified.

Red Raven still didn't turn her head, but they could see the scowl that soured her face. "Don't ever tell me what I can't do, _Princess,_" she snapped.

"Wait. Wait a minute, Rae." This time it was Red Robin piping up, nervous, pulling back on Cyborg's arm with all his strength. "This is all… technically my fault." he said. "If you do this, you'll be making me responsible for the deaths of... _billions_ of people." He shook his head. "I'm not sure I want that on my conscience."

_That_ got her attention. She shot a look of disgust over her shoulder. "Oh cry more, Boy Scoundrel. I don't care if _you're_ going to have a misplaced sense of _guilt,_" she snapped. She shook her head, concentrating on the expanding portal. "Honestly, your pathetic little "conscience" rears its head at the most _inconvenient_ times."

"You're a fool," Raven hissed, her violet eyes narrowed to angry slits, the same rage burning in her heart. "You'd make our father proud."

"Shut up," her opposite bit back.

Raven squirmed, wanting to say more, but Changeling's coils tightened even more—whether from fear or obedience to her counterpart she couldn't tell—squeezing the air from her. Her eyes popped and she could barely speak.

The portal was rapidly expanding, filling the sky. It's edges strained under Red Raven's telekinetic push, splintering, growing like cracks on thin ice. The metal door to inside behind them groaned as the unseen force drawing all things towards the rift pulled on it.

Beast Boy peeked up from the ground, managing to raise his head despite Arsenal's boot on his back. He peered through the netting, heart thumping.

"Not good," he squeaked.

He felt the building give a shudder beneath his chest.

"Not good!" he repeated, shriller.

Cyber-Vile's instruments were going haywire. Static filled the insides of his head, and his circuits screamed in protest. He shook himself to regain his senses, analytics observing dimensions and tectonics and sub-atomic movement and a whole range of increasingly alarming data.

"The rate of acceleration has increased past fifteen point five microparticles per second," he reported, his robotic tone carrying a frantic edge. "Increasing by half-seconds. Conjoining imminent in thirty minutes. You will not have enough time to deaccelerate our home dimension past survivable parameters."

"I can handle it," the demoness dismissed. Sweat was beading on her brow, furrowed in concentration.

Cyber-Vile's voice was definitely exasperated now as he said, "This is an unwise course of action. Your calculated success rate is negative two point seven and dropping."

"I can _handle_. It," she insisted, her teeth gritting together stubbornly.

"No you can't!" Red Robin objected. Both arms clung to Cyborg's now, as though the android could anchor him in place from the relentless tugging of the rift. "You can't just gamble with our lives like that!"

"Please Red Raven, I just want to go home!" Blackfire wailed.

Tempest's hook faltered. "Maybe we should think about this for a minute, Rae—"

"We'll be fine," she cut off.

The rooftop groaned under their feet, belying that.

"You're insane!" yelled Beast Boy.

"You'll destroy everything!" cried Arsenal.

"If you cause a quantum collision there won't _be_ a universe anymore!" Cyborg shouted at her.

Her frown deepened. "I _have this_ under control."

"_You're going to kill us all!" _Red Robin screeched.

She snapped around, half-turning to face them, hands still raised. Her glare was ice-cold and terrifying, promising a clear and violent threat.

"Are any of you going defy me?" she challenged.

Her words rang in the air a moment, as ominous as the roaring, sucking portal looming behind her. She was silhouetted against it like some dark specter, shadowed and menacing.

Every single Tyrant shrank back from her eyes, even Cyber-Vile's threat analysis calculating her retaliatory wrath as more immediate a danger than the imminent collision of the universes.

No one spoke up.

No one would defy her.

In that moment, Raven realized the true depravity of her alternate self—not only that she would destroy two universes for her own sick fancy, but that she was terrifying enough to cow her own friends out of stopping her.

She felt sick in the pit of her stomach as Red Raven turned back towards the portal.

Its roar was deafening now. It filled the street from end to end, still splintering apart at the edges as Red Raven pushed it open wider. Debris and loose articles sailed over their heads, pulled into the broadening rift. The same pull dragged on them. They could feel it tugging at their clothes and hair, beckoning them closer like a mother's gentle touch.

Raven dug in her heels, desperately trying to keep her balance. Frantically her eyes darted around, but no one was moving, no one _could_ move, they were frozen in fear, immobile, useless, watching the rift tear open in mute horror.

A long rumble, stronger this time, had the ground shaking beneath their feet.

Immediately a shrill alarm sounded from the computer in Cyborg's arm. The klaxon cut through the howling of the portal, spiking everyone's pulse and startling them from their trace.

Arsenal clapped a hand to the top of his quiver, holding his arrows in place. Cyborg strained to see the readouts in his arm, but Blackfire's terrified grip was strong, and his skin sweat from the heat of her starbolt. She and Red Robin exchanged a desperate glance, but neither moved. Robin thrashed wildly in Cyber-Vile's grip, scratching his fingernails against the unyielding metal of the half-robot's arm.

"Stop!" he cried, his voice high and frantic, forgetting the threat against his life. "Don't do this!" he begged. "Raven!"

If she could hear him over the din, she ignored him. The cracks grew wider. White light filtered out through them. The Tower on the other side was growing startlingly clear.

Cyber-Vile's own alarms were adding to the noise now.

"Stop!" Robin screamed again. "Please... stop!"

Raven's eyes snapped up to the portal. She was shaking from head to toe, her head and ears rang, hurting worse than ever, but she sucked as much oxygen in as she could, concentrating.

"A...zarath..." she rasped, her lungs straining breathlessly against the constriction of Changeling's python coils. "...met... rion... z... zin...thos..."

Her powers bled out, weakly, an invisible telekinetic arm grasping out with struggling fingers.

But they latched onto the portal, feeling out the edges of its circle, and then holding.

The portal's rapid expansion slowed, Raven's powers now struggling against Red Raven's, wrestling with them and trying to push them back. It was like shoving on a brick wall. She could sense the annoyance in Red Raven's pushback but she refused to let go, refused to let her counterpart have another inch.

The rift paused growing momentarily, the two empaths locked in a stalemate. Raven tried to pour more focus and energy into her hold, but with her lungs overexerting themselves just to keep her breathing she could feel her grip slipping.

But she couldn't black out now.

She squeezed tighter, expression delirious.

Red Raven slowly pivoted, turning from the rift, eyes flashing with annoyance and something darker. She looked as though she was going to say something.

From the corner of her eye Raven saw, as if in slow-motion, a figure slipping over the side of the wall and onto the roof, its presence completely muted and masked by the empathic noise.

The form she recognized as Swordstroke bounded across the roof in three quick bursts—one step, two steps, three steps—a sharp glint of silver flashing in his hand.

Red Raven arched her back and her eyes widened with a gasp of shock and pain as Wilson's sword impaled her through the stomach.


	15. Collision

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
> 
> CLIMACTIC FINAL BATTLE AHOY!
> 
> I'll not keep you long, readers. Let's get to it! :D

All hell broke loose.

With a furious roar Changeling released Raven, shifting mid-leap into an angry red-eyed wolf and bounding across the rooftop towards Swordstroke.

No sooner had he let go then Raven staggered before finding her feet and raising her hands.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" she yelled. Splinters of thought lashed out, grabbing onto the edges of the portal and squeezing them tightly.

Swordstroke yanked his blade out of Red Raven's gut just in time to raise it against the snarling wolf that pounced on him, knocking him over. The demoness jerked limply with the movement, frozen, her eyes unseeing. She panted heavily, sinking slowly to her knees, her hands splaying on the rooftop in mute shock.

While everyone was still busy staring, Cyborg moved, raising Red Robin bodily from the ground with his arm before tossing him off, the next second flinging Blackfire backwards. His sonic cannon whirred to life a moment later, taking aim at Tempest's back.

The hydrokinetic grunted in pain as the beam hit him, losing his grip on Starfire.

She wasted no time, elbowing Tempest hard in the chest, grabbing his arm, yanking him up over her head and slamming him down in a suplex move that left him winded and breathless.

Her arm snapped up, already letting loose a starbolt that knocked Arsenal halfway across the roof. Starfire rushed forward to start ripping apart the net entangling Beast Boy.

Her counterpart leapt onto Cyborg's back as he fired determinedly at Changeling, arms tightening around his neck, trying for a headlock. Growling, Cyborg grabbed both her arms, prying free her too-loose grip, whirling and hurling her towards the heating units. Blackfire skidded, rolling past Raven as she was thrown off.

The empath planted her feet firmly, all concentration on the portal. Slowly, she forced the massive wormhole to shrink. Even without Red Raven tearing it open, it was slow-going, the edges resisting her hold, receding inch by inch as Raven poured on the energy, oblivious to the chaos around her.

Cyber-Vile's warning klaxons sounded shrilly, data streaming across his visual feed as he analyzed the shrinking portal, his instruments glitching out and Robin's desperate scratching and clutching at his arm slowing the process down.

**Collision eminent,** his eye still read, in flashing white letters. **Collision eminent.**

He barely paid attention to Robin's scrabbling, even as the Boy Wonder managed to hook his hands underneath the android's forearm, straining.

Across the roof, Arsenal had recovered from his tumble, lunging forward even as Starfire and Beast Boy were straightening to their feet, the broken pieces of the net around them, and taking a swing at her.

She side-stepped, got inside his defenses and slugged him hard in the stomach. He reeled back, clutching his middle. Starfire felt a whoosh of air and ducked, just in time to miss a swipe from Tempest's hook, the metal flashing above her. Arsenal was coming at her again, but was intercepted by Beast Boy, morphing down into a pitbull and biting the archer's leg.

Arsenal howled in pain, kicking his leg to dislodge him.

Still doubled over on her hands and knees, Red Raven finally seemed to stir from her shock. Her right hand raised, trembling, a weak white glow forming around her fist. Eyes still blankly ahead, she pressed the healing touch firmly to her stomach, crying out softly and biting her lip as her hand made contact with the wound.

Squeezing in his chin and giving one more firm pull on the android's arm, Robin finally slipped free of Cyber-Vile's grip, ducking out of his hold and forcing the half-robot to pause his analysis of the portal and face him.

Robin grabbed the bo staff from his belt and extended it, giving it a twirl as he faced off against Cyber-Vile.

At the android's back was Cyborg, engaged in a mirror image skirmish with Red Robin. The agile Teen Tyrant jabbed quick and fast with his fists, Cyborg just managing to block his strikes and trade a few swings of his own. A heavy right cross to Red Robin's face bought him some breathing room, and Cyborg used it to coil his mechanical muscles.

The next time Red Robin came at him, he was punted across the roof like he weighed like styrofoam. Cyborg grimaced a little at the collision and the reverberations in his arms—that wasn't the kind of force he should be using on a normal human—but cracked his knuckles as he straightened.

He didn't have time to train his cannon back on Changeling; Blackfire swooped in with a furious yell, her eyes glowing, her fist slamming into his side and denting the plating. Cyborg dropped to one knee, crossing his wrists defensively as the Tamaranian's wild assault continued.

Wilson, meanwhile, had not been idle. He kept his sword firmly between him and the snapping jaws of Changeling, just barely holding the wolf's sharp white teeth at bay.

With a strong heave, he finally managed to throw the creature off. Not for long though; the man had just barely wobbled to his feet before having to swerve around the heavy, razor-clawed paw of a tiger. Swordstroke kicked the rearing feline in the chest.

As it buckled it became a snarling doberman, attacking again and again ferociously. Wilson was forced to give the shape-shifter another long slash with his sword to finally put an end to it. The doberman yelped pitifully, blundering a fair distance away, becoming a hard-shelled tortoise to stop the bleeding.

Panting hard, Wilson took his stance, aware in the corner of his vision of Red Robin, wobbling upright from where he'd fallen and glaring with pure hatred at him, beginning to rush forward.

His impromptu first aid done, Changeling morphed into a bristling boar, his mouth foaming, blank white eyes narrow and angry, lowering his tusks and pawing his hooves.

He'd taken two lumbering steps before a green-horned ram slammed into him from the side. Knocked off-course, Changeling and Beast Boy rolled across the roof, Changeling finally stopping them by morphing into a crocodile and snapping his jaws with a hiss.

Beast Boy was already in the form of a lion to counter, and bit down on Changeling's neck, sharp claws sinking into his scaly flesh.

Across the roof, limping on his injured leg, Arsenal would have been a poor opponent for Starfire had she not been distracted trading off with Robin to batter Tempest around. The hyrokinetic was extending his powers, searching for water he could summon, his concentration breaking every time he felt the butt of Robin's bo staff or the sting of Starfire's starbolts.

While her back was turned, Arsenal came to his aid, throwing his arms around Starfire's midsection to pin hers down to her sides.

She snarled, twisting free harshly, aiming a strike towards Arsenal's shoulder.

He blocked it, grabbing her wrist with one hand, with the other pulling free his crossbow.

She broke his hold in an instant and the arrow that should have pierced her chest flew harmlessly past the other combatants, as Starfire gained altitude, firing starbolts down at him. He spun around to follow her path, arrows missing her just shy of her wake. Her starbolts popped against the roof, raining upon the battle like deadly hail. She aimed between Robin and his opponents, to help give him breathing room.

From this height she could see all the combatants struggling wildly, engaged in fierce pitched battle. Changeling and Beast Boy were a snarling blur of green rolling on the ground to one side. Red Robin was striking forcefully at Wilson, a look of absolute rage on his face. Robin was a whirling blur of motion, taking on Arsenal, Tempest, and Cyber-Vile all at once. The villainous half-robot also had to contend with his heroic counterpart, who slugged punches at his back when he didn't have to fend off the feral dark-haired Tamaranian that was swinging at him.

Starfire felt a shuddering tug from behind almost the same moment a burst of starbolts were flung up at her from below. She pulled herself out of the way, pinning her eyebeams down on Blackfire and striking her with a solid shot to the chest.

The Tamaranian grunted, her furious eyes now fixating on Starfire as she rose up to meet her, freeing up Cyborg to aid Robin and start firing his cannon at Cyber-Vile. Blackfire brought her hands up, glowing, and faced her Titan counterpart.

The air was soon filled with a criss-cross of starbolts, burning bright green in the night.

A few stray bolts hit the surface of the portal dully and, behind the chaos, Raven flinched a little every time. Her face was screwed up in concentration, eyes squeezed shut, throwing all her power into forcing the door closed. She could _feel_ the pressure behind the wormhole, the inexorable movement of the other world closing in and she pushed and pushed and _pushed_ it back even as she willed the circle smaller.

_Shrink..._ she begged. _Shrink!_

Through the empathic haze that still surrounded them she felt a sudden warning and gasped, stepping back to avoid the wild swing of a clubbed tail. The tail whirled around to smash a charging bull elephant in the face and Beast Boy—or was it Changeling?—morphed from spined ankylosaurus to tufted gorilla, leaping upon his opponent, who shifted just as quickly into a satsquatch and locked arms with him, even as he was pinned down.

Cyber-Vile's alarms were still blaring. He could barely hear over the sound of them ringing in his ears. His data was recalculating, the figure for the rate of acceleration dropping rapidly in the corner of his vision, but the white text warning was still flashing.

**Collision eminent.**

If he only had some _time_, free of distractions, he might be able to make a more accurate analysis of situation. But there was too much information, too much data and sensory noise, to take in. Even his state-of-the-art processors were sluggish, slow to respond to the ever-changing dynamics of the battle raging around him.

Cyborg's fist came swinging towards his face. His servos kicked in last-minute, easing his head out of its path. The Titan was following up with a heavy uppercut, which Cyber-Vile let connect, only so he could kick into the opening in Cyborg's defenses and boot him in the stomach.

Motion sensors picking up an attack from behind now. Cyber-Vile rotated sharply, raising his arm, letting Robin's bo staff glance off it.

_Ranged armaments inadvisable,_ his analytics told him. They were in too close quarters for missiles or rockets. Traditional methods then. Cyber-Vile's sonic cannon whirred to life rapidly and shot off a quick burst at the Boy Wonder.

Robin doubled over with a pained grunt as he was flung back a few paces, landing hard on the roof, which shuddered ominously underneath him. He somersaulted to his feet in seconds.

He was given no time to react, for a heavy and solid mass slammed into him. Arms like steel beams grabbed him from behind, trying to pin his down. Robin twisted violently in Tempest's grip, wrestling with the Atlantian, pushing the other boy off, or trying to. Tempest was an immovable wall, solid and unyielding, at least until Robin brought his staff up with a solid thwack to Tempest's wrist.

Tempest cried out, that arm yanking back, the hook scraping across Robin's skin, but the other hand still pinched tightly around Robin's right elbow.

Robin wrenched himself around so that he was facing Tempest now. He grabbed the Atlantian's shoulders and pulled his torso down, kneeing him in the gut. The iron grip finally released his arm—Robin could already feel it bruising—and the Boy Wonder immediately launched into a series of attacks with his bo staff, swinging it through the air like lightning.

Tempest's hook glanced off the staff with a shower of metal sparks as he deflected.

Arsenal's arrows whizzed past the both of them now, streaking past their ears with a familiar audible whoosh. The archer was heedless of who he aimed at, just emptying his quiver into a wild volley. Cyborg and Cyber-Vile's sonic beams, too, filled the space with lines of blue energy, punching the rooftop, sailing past them to thud into the portal.

It groaned, glowing briefly where the energy struck, making the ground rock unsteadily beneath their feet. Several arrows veered off-course as the pull of the portal tugged on them.

Robin glanced at it briefly, gathering his breath a moment before his next attack. He craned his head, the edges of the portal still high above his sight. But, slowly, it was growing smaller, the glass-splintered edges folding in on themselves. He could see the line of it receding, high above where the flashes of green light signified Starfire's battle with Blackfire.

Robin's eyes widened as he watched the aerial battle and he suddenly dove to the side. Tempest, slashing with his hook into the space the Boy Wonder had been moments before, stumbled and looked up in confusion.

He saw the flying projectile that was a hurtling Blackfire and didn't even have time to finish his curse.

"Oh shi—"

_BLAM!_

Blackfire slammed into him with all the force of a boulder, thrown down from the air by Starfire. The rooftop cracked where the teens landed, a limp tangle of limbs.

Tempest groaned, arms and legs stiff all around him.

Now Starfire swooped down from above, starbolts strafing the rooftop in a line from Arsenal to Cyber-Vile. Her eyes glowed furiously as she flung them down.

A pained cry suddenly rose up from her right. Instinctively, only hearing the voice of her beloved and only seeing the familiar flash of an orange and black mask she hated, Starfire jerked around in the air and let a starbolt fly.

It popped against Wilson's back, and he let out a grunt, losing his hold on Red Robin. The Brotherhood member had finally managed to grab onto him after all their vicious grappling, twisting both of the boy's arms up behind his back, eliciting a grimace and the cry Starfire had heard. Those arms slipped free before Wilson could tighten his grip again and the furiously desperate Teen Tyrant was loose, running out of range, while Wilson's back smoked and pain lanced across his shoulders.

Starfire's eyes lost their glow at once and she gasped, covering her mouth with her hands. She hadn't meant to—she had thought it was _her_—

She wasn't given time to call out an apology. One of Arsenal's trick arrows hit her, steel cable bursting from the tip and wrapping harshly around her ankle.

A hard yank on the line jerked Starfire from the air, and she shrieked and fell to the roof to rejoin the battle on the ground, greeted by Arsenal's fist on the way down.

Tempest and Blackfire were still dazed from their collision, Blackfire only just beginning to crawl stiffly away from the hydrokinetic. That left Cyborg free of distractions, running straight to Arsenal to slug him one and make him let go of the other end of the cable, let go of Starfire. Across the roof, Red Robin had inserted himself into the battle between Changeling and Beast Boy, using the two shape-shifters' wild movements as cover from Swordstroke's pursuit.

Irritated, the man simply reached into the fray and grabbed one of the green boys by the scruff, tossing him off while booting the other one out of his way.

Red Robin's hands jerked up defensively as he backed away. "Stay away from me!" he yelled, shrill and panicky.

Wilson threw out his hands in aggravation. "Why are you fighting?" he demanded. "The enemy is _that!_"

He jabbed a finger behind them, pointing at the shimmering behemoth of the portal opening.

For once, the anger left the Teen Tyrant's eyes, which flicked up to look at the portal nervously.

Wilson couldn't say any more; Changeling's snarl sounded in his ear and he whipped around to face the hulking, wolf-like creature. A hard-kuckled fist to the animal's snout had it reeling for a moment, and the man backpedaled rapidly out of range.

Starbolts whizzed past them, singing Changeling's fur. Free of Arsenal's cable line, Starfire rushed towards them, intent on making up for her blunder earlier.

Tempest was back up, head throbbing and pain pulsing inside his skull, inciting his anger. He spread his hands and there was a rumbling from the building under their feet as water lines tugged up towards the roof. Pipes burst from the concrete in two places, jet streams twisting about in search of targets. Cyber-Vile sidestepped one, focused intently on the scanners in his arm.

_Acceleration rate dropping. Circumference of anomaly dropping._ He glanced up at the rift, reading the white text warning on his screen.

**Collision possible.**

There was a loud groan from the wormhole as Raven shoved out with her mind and shrunk it another few feet. The edges shook in protest. The ground trembled. The energy readings spiked and Cyber-Vile's interface glitched out with a screech of static.

A rush of wind spiraled past them into the rift, and Raven staggered, wobbling on aching knees, raising her tired arms higher.

The rooftop didn't quit shaking for several long seconds.

Where she sat, gray eyes widening, Blackfire's face paled. She scooted backwards on her hands and heels, fearfully, distancing herself from its shimmering surface.

Red Raven was beginning to move too, pushing up off her knees, her side screaming in protest, her eyes also fixated on the portal. Its siren song was calling to her desperately. She could feel its energies trickling into nothing, its tune being squelched out by her counterpart's efforts to close it. The fear and terror coming in from her world was growing fainter, the empathic haze becoming clear.

"No no no no," she hissed under her breath. Her hands began to raise. Control. She had to regain control.

Robin, staff locked with Arsenal's escrima, saw her movement in the corner of his vision. He stiffened, then narrowed his eyes and shoved Arsenal back. Whipping around he nailed Tempest in the stomach, making him drop one of his water whips, and then he was peeling off, metal-plated boots pounding the rooftop.

He swung his staff in an overhead arc and cracked Red Raven across the back with it.

She cried out as she went down on her knees again, the sharp pain shooting up through her, blending into her headache. The wound in her stomach, not fully healed, gave a sickening throb, a thin trickle of blood spilling out of it.

The look on Robin's face was venomous. "_Stay down,_" he hissed.

Red Raven snarled through her teeth, jerking her head up defiantly. Robin wasn't even looking at her anymore, busy fending off a two-pronged attack from Arsenal and Tempest, Cyborg momentarily incapacitated by a stun arrow. Hatred coursed through her veins and her bloodshot eyes darted towards Cyber-Vile, studying his arm and oblivious to the chaos.

She reached out with her powers, extending her will and influence with a blunt display of empathic force.

_Kill._

The chips and wires in the half-robot's brain didn't respond, his mental shielding casually shrugging off her initial probe.

Red Raven pushed harder.

_Kill!_ she willed.

Cyber-Vile paused in his analysis a moment. His analytics didn't pick up anything unusual, but some long-unused... _human_ part of his brain was stirring faintly, feeling... something.

The demoness's eyes glowed bright red. Her hand raised and she sharpened her empathic powers into a knife, digging, worming her way under the half-robot's defenses and shoving all her raw anger and hatred up inside.

She pushed so hard they all felt a trace of it, bleeding into them. Changeling's howls grew louder and Red Robin clutched the sides of his head, raising his mental shields. Raven grimaced, feeling a loud ring of feedback in her mind.

Cyber-Vile stiffened abruptly, his face blanking out, arm lowering to his side. He stood there in a daze, as a growling Beast Boy barreled past in cougar form to knock over Tempest, and Cyborg shot an arrow off of Arsenal's crossbow with his sonic cannon.

One human and one mechanical eye drifted, coming to rest on Robin. An odd electrical charge surged through Cyber-Vile's circuits.

**Target acquired.**

The lines on his body took on a red hue, his human eye fading to crimson, mirroring the lens of his robotic one.

**Lethal force: Authorized.**

Robin clashed his staff with Arsenal's escrima stick. He could hear Starfire behind him, blasting starbolts at a dodging Changeling. The swish of Wilson's sword punctuated the silence between the blasts.

A shadow fell across his shoulder, signaling an incoming attack. Robin spun about, jabbing with his staff.

It was wrenched from his hands, tossed off to the side, clanging against the rooftop.

Robin took a step back, raising his hands warily. Cyber-Vile stalked slowly towards him, his eyes glowing eerily.

He knew immediately something was off, but aimed a strike at him nonetheless.

With lightning fast reflexes Cyber-Vile caught his wrist. Robin gasped in pain as the metal fingers squeezed harshly. He had just enough time to comprehend the half-robot's fist moving.

_BAM!_

"Aaah!" The Boy Wonder stumbled back with a groan, hand shooting up to his face. The blow had cracked through his head like a sledgehammer, knocking him dizzy.

Robin struggled to recover. Cyber-Vile kicked out; the full force of his steel leg caught Robin's side. Robin yelped again as he felt something crack, flew back several feet and landed with a jolt on his rear.

Arsenal's crossbow lowered in shock. "Woah," he said, staring at Cyber-Vile.

Cyborg looked up from his scrap with Tempest. He saw the red glow and his sonic cannon was out in an instant, charging as he ran towards his counterpart, leaving Beast Boy to batter great bear paws at the Atlantian.

Cyber-Vile didn't even flinch at Cyborg's yell. A smooth side-step, a casual grab, a heave, and Cyborg was hurtling towards the opposite end of the roof, crashing into Starfire.

Arsenal snapped out of his daze, raising his crossbow and firing as he ran for them, at the same moment a feral Changeling pounced on their fallen forms. An uppercut from Starfire snapped the creature's head back.

Robin scrambled to get up, legs shaky, watching Cyber-Vile descending on him with widened eyes. His eyes darted briefly to Red Raven, curled up around herself with a look of mean satisfaction.

The demoness's gaze burned at him and she chuckled darkly. Then, a pang in her stomach drew her full attention and she squeezed herself in pain, pooling healing energy inside, quite content to use Cyber-Vile as her blunt instrument, her perfect emotionless puppet against Robin.

The Boy Wonder got to his feet. There was nowhere to run; the portal was at his back. He rushed forward, striking fast, but Cyber-Vile was even faster, blocking all his hits methodically like he could predict them before they were coming. Robin just barely dodged the half-robot's next heavy strike, hopping back and then getting a running start for a drop kick.

His ankle was grabbed while he was still in midair. Robin yelped, flailed, dangling a moment before being dropped, unceremoniously, to the ground.

A vicious kick sent him rolling. Robin coughed breathlessly, terrified for a moment that his sternum had snapped. He struggled to his hands and knees, only to be kicked again, skin scraping the roof.

"Robin!" Starfire cried from across the roof. In a protective rage she pushed Changeling away hard, turning to come to the rescue, but the shape-shifter was not so easily beaten and leapt onto her back as an orangutan, sharp teeth biting into her shoulder.

She yanked the primate off with a snarl, taking to the air. She rolled him up in a ball of fur, preparing to hurl him down, but he became a large vulture and flapped away, and then a pteranodon and gave chase to her. She shot starbolts at him, glancing down anxiously at Robin when she could.

She couldn't disengage. No one could. Arsenal kept Cyborg and Swordstroke busy, Tempest had a headlock on Beast Boy, Raven still strained against the portal.

Her own counterpart stood and watched, paralyzed, gray eyes wide as dinner plates.

Robin staggered upright. With inhuman speed Cyber-Vile's hands shot out and gripped the sides of his head, and then he smashed his metal forehead into the Boy Wonder's.

Stars exploded in his vision as he stumbled back. He could barely see. His arm swung out weakly.

The harsh iron grip seized his wrist again, yanked his arm straight before bringing down a solid chop just under his elbow, breaking the bone with a snap.

Robin shrieked, unnaturally shrill, the pain ripping the sound from him as it flooded his senses. He crumpled to the roof, falling onto his side and clutching his broken arm, his face twisted in agony.

Cyber-Vile stood above him impassively, watching him cower. Slowly, he reached down, grabbing Robin by the throat and lifting him up. The boy's toes scuffed the ground, scrambling, just barely suspended. His good left hand clutched feebly at Cyber-Vile's wrist while his broken one hung useless at his side.

The robot's cold red eyes showed nothing but callous indifference. The mechanics in his arm clunked and rattled as he brought out his deadly laser cannon.

It charged with an ominous hum.

Robin swallowed, staring down the glowing red barrel. At this close range, even if it was a normal sonic cannon blast, the shot would most assuredly kill him.

Red Raven would have the last laugh.

The whine reached a fever pitch and Cyber-Vile's fingers tightened, stiffening in preparation for the finishing act and Robin's imminent termination. Robin glared defiantly through woozy eyes, determined not to let his fear show.

Cyber-Vile pulled back on the internal trigger.

_CRUNCH!_

Something punched into his back from behind. A fist, shoving in forcefully, bearing a strange heat.

The heat seared through his chest, bursting out the other side in a bright green explosion.

_BANG!_

Cyber-Vile dropped Robin. The glow faded from his eyes and circuitry. All power seemed to be fading from him, actually.

Sensors and analytical processing once again under his control, Cyber-Vile blinked.

He looked down and touched a hand to the gaping hole in his chest, uncomprehendingly.

His power cell was... absent, he noted dully.

His head raised, taking in a stunned Robin on the ground.

Then his eyes unfocused, his circuitry turned gray, and he dropped heavily to his knees before falling face-down to the roof. Robin quickly rolled himself out of the way, looking up in shock.

Blackfire's arm was still outstretched and she was frozen in place, expression horrified, as if she herself could not believe what she had just done.

She stood over Robin. For a long moment they stared at each other, bewildered.

A shudder vibrated under their feet. The portal moaned as it lost a good foot or two in diameter.

Red Robin was suddenly at Blackfire's side, tugging on her arm, expression fearful.

"Come on!" he urged, pulling her towards the portal.

Blackfire tripped over her own feet, stumbling over Cyber-Vile's prone form after Red Robin as they headed straight for the shimmering barrier, darting past Red Raven.

Without another word, their hands clasped tightly and they disappeared through the portal.

-TT-

Once on the other side, they ran.

And they didn't stop running.

-TT-

Red Raven sensed their signatures disappearing, but she didn't have the strength to stop them. She'd used up too much energy overpowering Cyber-Vile's mind; now she felt drained and lethargic. She couldn't even heal herself. The wound in her stomach burned sharply.

Around her, the battle continued. True, they were down three Tyrants, but they were also down one Titan. Robin hadn't moved from where Cyber-Vile had dropped him.

He didn't think he _could_ move.

Just a few paces away, Tempest was blasting at Beast Boy with everything he had, broken water line spewing into the shape-shifter's face at full pressure. Beast Boy sputtered, turning his head, trying to block the stream with his hands as he was pushed back by the sheer force.

Straightening, his body thinned out, lengthening into the sleek form of a water snake. His body dropped to the ground, slithering quickly and coiling up around Tempest's leg. A rapid shift into a chimpanzee, a hard pull, and Tempest was upended, his water stream splashing limply to the roof.

Arsenal traded blows with Cyborg and Swordstroke, his escrima stick a blur of motion. The two heroes pushed him back, relentlessly, driving him towards the event horizon of the portal. Metal crashes sounded with every swing of Wilson's sword.

Starbolts flared past Changeling, who turned his falcon wings sharply to dodge, swooping in for a dive-bomb at Starfire's head. She felt talon-like claws scrape past her cheek, barely grazing her, as she moved back and back in the air.

Changeling came in for another pass, and this time Starfire felt a sharp blossom of pain as his talons raked her side.

She cried out, grabbing the place with her hand, feeling the pain bleed through her head to merge with her righteous fury.

This fight had gone on long enough.

Now, she would end it.

Eyes blazing, she fixed on the lean shape of Changeling, wheeling above and circling around for another swoop. She waited until the split-second pause before he tucked in his wings.

He dove.

She brought her hands up, burning with starbolt energy, which widened into a concave green shield above her head.

Changeling hit the wall of solid green energy like a bug hitting a window, recoiling hard, falling back, dazed, dropping towards the rooftop and morphing unconsciously back into human form.

Starfire lost altitude at once, falling down to Robin's side.

Tempest was back up by now, tangled with Beast Boy. Changeling took a few more moments to come to, sitting up with unfocused eyes and putting a hand to his head.

The portal shuddered behind him, air sucking into its depths, pulling all the mingled scents of the Tyrants and Titans past his nose. Changeling shook his head, trying to clear his senses. His human consciousness was already fading, already melting underneath the primal animal instinct rising up to choke his mind.

He smelled enemies. He smelled _him._

Swordstroke had maneuvered around Arsenal, and was now not even a few paces away from Changeling.

The boy felt a snarl building up in his chest. Bestial fury overtook his rational human mind once again and he crouched low, morphing into a jaguar.

His angry growl caused Wilson to turn around, just as the predator leapt.

Wilson spun low, sweeping his leg up.

He caught Changeling in the side with his kick, knocking the green jaguar to the side, straight into the portal.

The shape-shifter disappeared with a shimmering ripple.

Four down.

The ground rumbled again, as Arsenal and Tempest both backed up, regrouping in front of Red Raven and trading nervous glances. Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Swordstroke stood upright, slowly closing in.

The roar of the portal behind them suddenly increased in volume, like a faucet spray's pressure spiking. The two Tyrants looked up, startled, to find the edges once high above their heads at half the distance and rapidly moving towards them.

And ringing clear and powerful above the dim was Raven shouting.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos... Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"

As one, they turned tail.

Arsenal bent down to sling Red Raven's arm around his shoulders and help her stagger up.

"Time to go."

She hissed in protest, but was too weakened to do anything but wobble along with him on unsteady feet.

She turned her head in the pause just before they entered the portal, burning a glare of pure hatred at the Titans. A grudgingly resigned anger. The look of a defeated predator animal before it slunk back to its hole to lick its wounds. Even now, with the demoness cowed and retreating from the battlefield, it was enough to send a shiver down all their spines.

Tempest had already slipped though, and with a reluctant limping swerve, Red Raven and Arsenal followed him into the rift, the shimmering surface melting around them and stealing them from view.

Beast Boy and Swordstroke darted forward, each of them taking one of Cyber-Vile's arms and lifting the heavy metal body of the cyborg up. They took four trotting steps and heaved, tossing the body into the portal.

Cyborg had his arm sensor out, quickly analyzing the shrinking portal.

"Keep it up, Raven!" he yelled over the roar of the wind. "You've almost got it!"

Raven didn't reply, only wheezing in response, her face pale and furrowed in concentration.

Swordstroke turned slowly from the portal to face them.

"I'd better take my exit," he said, his eyes seeking out Robin, standing now thanks to Starfire's support. A final nod of respect was aimed at the boy.

Robin returned it. "Good luck," he said.

The man tipped a salute and then made his escape through the ever-narrowing rift.

The portal's roar seemed deafening without the distracting chaotic sounds of battle. Even more wind rushed into it, and the Titans were unsteady on their feet.

Robin and Starfire backed away from the surface, craning their heads up towards the receding edge above. The rift was making an audible ring.

Raven heard it as a shrill shrieking inside her head, pounding through her skull, clanging and banging against the sides of her brain like noisy bells. The empathic feedback was loud static in her senses. The pain in her head was all she was aware of. Pain, and the sucking hole in the fabric of reality that she was folding in on itself. The other world was still rushing forwards, still trying to squeeze through the tiny crack into their dimension. Its energy bombarded her, the echoes of fear and terror pushing past her mind.

She collected it with her thoughts, gathering it up in a blanket-like mental shield, fed it back through the portal, _pushed_ it back into its own world.

Another shudder. Another long groan.

The edges of the portal were no longer fighting her, tightening faster and faster. Her head felt like it would split open, the feedback a white-hot pain inside her skull. All sound faded out into the portal's ringing. Her eyes were squeezed closed but even if she had them open, Raven was certain she wouldn't be able to see a thing, dark splotches dancing across her vision, flashing against her closed lids.

Someone might have been calling to her; she couldn't hear them.

The roar was a high-pitched screech now, squeezing, squeezing, squeezing.

The wind was dying.

Her head was tearing.

The hole was smaller, smaller, so small. Just a little more... just a little...

She felt the threads of reality curl up and snap, and the sound was like a great thunderclap, echoing across the whole sky.

_KRA-KOOM!_

The recoil made her stagger back, weak-kneed.

Pain knifed up through her head one last time before she felt herself tilting and falling soundlessly into the black.


	16. Epilogue

Raven floated in the warm blackness, feeling strangely at peace.

"...ven? Raven?"

A light voice, full of concern, seemed to echo in the empty space. It pulled on her gently, calling her consciousness back.

She gave a small groan, loud-sounding in the stillness, and slowly became aware of her body. Horizontal, lying prone, cold rough concrete at her back. Her head was propped up and one of her hands was warm, enveloped by someone's fingers inside their leathery gloves.

A nip of cool, fresh air, smelling faintly of sea salt, met her nostrils. The scent seemed to awaken her, sending jolts of alertness and vigor through her head.

She cracked her eyes open, blinking in the dim grayish light. Shapes and forms blurred a moment before clearing into an actual picture, and a dark shadow hovering just above her face resolved into the image of a familiar changeling.

He cracked a small, relieved smile, his eyes brightening. "Hey Raven," he greeted tenderly.

"Beast Boy?" she slurred. Finding her limbs, Raven raised herself from the ground, partially propping her upper body up on her elbows.

"How are you feeling?" Beast Boy asked, slowly unpeeling from her side but staying close with his arms still extended.

Raven blinked, looking around. She took stock of the signals from her body. She could feel bruises around her forearms and a lingering sense of compression. She felt exhausted and drained in every limb. But...

The air no longer shimmered. Her ears no longer rang. The showdown was over.

And her headache had vanished completely.

The sky was clear. The pre-dawn light showed an empty rooftop. Starfire attended to Robin in much the same way as Beast Boy attended to her, wrapping his arm with torn strands from his cape. Cyborg paced back and forth, checking readings in his arm.

"Sore mostly," she answered, marveling as she sat up straight. "But I guess preventing two universes from crashing together will do that to you."

That earned a chuckle or two from her friends.

Raven glanced around anxiously. "We did stop it... right?" she asked uncertainly.

Beast Boy beamed at her. "You did great, Rae."

"Portal's closed," Cyborg confirmed, with a smile of his own. "The rift is sealing itself. Energy readings stabilizing." He lowered his arm. "And the extra-dimensional particles are beginning to disperse."

"And you, Cyborg?" asked Starfire, gingerly helping Robin up to his feet from where she'd had him sitting. "How are you faring?"

He tapped the metal side of his face. "No more interference, if that's what you're asking." He turned to Raven and Beast Boy. "Raven?"

"Ditto," she replied.

Cyborg swiveled back around, turning a cheeky grin on their injured leader. "And how do _you _feel, Robin?" he teased.

"Like crap," Robin mumbled with a grimace. Collecting himself he addressed them all. "But the Tyrants are gone, and the portal is shut. I think we can all be proud of that." He nodded towards the empath. "Good work, Raven."

She nodded mutely, almost unable to believe it. But her senses didn't lie. For the first time in hours her head was completely clear.

It felt akin to the sudden silence after a fountain shut off. Muted. Still.

Peaceful.

Her thoughts drifted. The specter of her Tyrant self floated in her mind's eye, her cruel smirk and burning red eyes almost visible against the rooftop.

So unlike her... Raven had always feared her own powers, tried to keep herself in constant check, even if it meant denying herself the ability to feel. Red Raven cared about none of that. She indulged herself what she wanted, whenever she wanted... and somehow had still managed to defy their father. It almost didn't seem fair. After all her efforts, all her desperate attempts to make sure her father could never use her emotions as a foothold, her double could just unleash hell whenever she wished and there were no immediate demonic repercussions.

On the other hand... Red Raven was a monster in her own right. Callous, cruel, mean-spirited, delighting in others' misery. Raven would never wish to be like her.

No, when she really thought about it... she had made the better choice.

They _all _had a choice, even the Tyrants. Fate, destiny... concepts that had once seemed so inevitable and inescapable held no power over her now. Twice now, in two different worlds, she had defied it.

She didn't know what kind of world the Tyrants lived in, what circumstances would have made them who they were, but she knew even they had the hope of redemption.

Though she doubted her other self would ever take it.

She pulled out of her private musing abruptly, seeing Beast Boy's eyes on her. His mouth was spread with a toothy grin and his gaze sparkled playfully.

"What?" she asked, confused.

"Happy birthday Raven," he told her.

She started at that, looking around. In all the excitement she hadn't even noticed. It was still dark out, but the eastern horizon was starting to gray and the wind nipped with a distinct "early morning" air. Midnight had passed them when they weren't looking and the pale eastern sky signaled the arrival of the new dawn.

She laughed lightly, shifting over and leaning her head on Beast Boy's chest, resting her cheek on his shoulder.

"I guess it is."

-TT-

The sky boiled a dull red, a simmering angry color that cast only dim light on the shadowed streets below. Wisps of shade and smoke drifted about, prowling, hunting for screams. Eerie faces peered out from the darkness, and aside from the occasional piercing demon screech it was unnaturally still, all the roads abandoned.

The gloomy atmosphere conveyed one message: Red Raven was pissed.

Swordstroke lifted up a slat of the blinds with his finger, peeking out at the empty intersection.

Casually noting the streak of ball-shaped fire that darted from one end of the street to the other, he commented, "She's outdone herself this year."

"I dunno Double S," said the voice of X behind him. The thief leaned back into the dinner booth lazily, his feet up on the table. "Sending minor shades and fire demons out to wander the city while she holes herself up in the Tower seems kinda lazy for her," he mused aloud.

"Yeah," agreed Komand'r, seated next to him. "She's half-assing it this year."

Swordstroke grinned. "With the hole I put in her I don't blame her for sitting out."

Dr. Light studied her datapad from a nearby single-seater table with a frown, waving the man back from the window. "I hope she sits out a good long while. This quiet haunting is a nice change of pace." She set the pad on the table in front of her and looked up from her seat. "Any sign of the rift-ripping device?"

Swordstroke dropped the blinds back into place and stepped away from the diner window. "I didn't see it on any of them," he said. "I think, in the excitement, they must have left it in the other dimension."

"Too bad," bemoaned X. "I'd have loved to take it for a spin."

The Brotherhood leader shot a brief glare at him before returning her eyes to Wilson. "And its cyborg inventor?" she asked.

The man folded his arms with a faint smirk. "I don't think he'll be rebuilding it anytime soon."

He had watched the fallout from a distance, once he'd escaped a good ways away from the Tower. Red Raven had collapsed from blood loss and exhaustion and Arsenal and Tempest had argued a long time, shouting in each other's faces, while a green-skinned furry creature curled up around Red Raven's pale prone form. Eventually the boys dragged the cold metal husk of Cyber-Vile into the city and dumped him just inside the threshold of his lab. The last Wilson had seen of him, his buzz droid assistants were beginning to creep out of the shadows to crawl over him, poking and prodding.

Red Robin and Blackfire were still missing. The last anyone had seen or heard of them, they had been spotted outside the Dixon power plant on the northeast outskirts of town, heading into the woods. There had been a palpable expression of hope on Komand'r's face when she'd heard. She'd begged him for every detail of the final battle and no sooner had he finished relaying the story than she was on the communications array, trying to pipe a signal in to her sister's communicator.

Neither she, nor her male companion, had answered yet. Wilson hoped they had made it out of the city unaccosted.

Dr. Light made a few more notes, then switched off her datapad. "Then I suppose congratulations are in order," she said, standing up from her seat. "You did good work out there, Wilson. We're very proud to have you."

A rare smile broke through her stern steel features and Swordstroke bowed his head at the high praise.

"Hey, I helped some," grumbled X under his breath.

"Truth be told," Swordstroke said, "most of the effort belongs to the Titans." A fond grin touched his lips, making the corners twitch. "Our little heroes are quite... remarkable." He turned his gaze on Komand'r, solemn again. "And I don't think I'll forget the unexpected but entirely welcome assist from your sister."

Komand'r fiddled with her Brotherhood communicator, flipping it open and closed as she stared down at the table. "I could have never imagined..." Her eyes turned up, meeting his. "Do you think—now that she's away from that witch—that there's a chance? For her to come back?" she asked, an almost-eager tone in her soft voice.

Wilson shrugged.

Dr. Light strode for the door, motioning for her teammates to follow. "All we can do is hope," she told the younger woman. "In the meantime, let's get back to base and see what we can do about Red Raven's little demonic infestation."

The two teens got up from the booth, following behind Dr. Light and Swordstroke as they headed for the back exit of the diner.

All four Brotherhood slipped into the shadows of the alleyway and were lost to sight, disappearing to evade the Tyrants once more.

-TT-

Robin stared up at the ceiling as though the plain gray steel held hidden answers to the questions that roiled around inside his head. He was running through yesterday's events, still processing everything that had happened since his date with Starfire had been so rudely interrupted.

They had returned to the motel room the Tyrants had been using as a hideout, to retrieve the jewelry and other items the teens had stolen. Upon discovering the portal ripper still stowed in the closet safe, the Titans had very quickly taken custody of it and agreed upon what to do.

It had to be destroyed. They couldn't risk one of their villains getting hold of it. Couldn't risk the Tyrants somehow using it to return.

Robin's features tightened, remembering their evil counterparts. Remembering Red Raven's burning hate-filled eyes. The Titans would have to be vigilant. True, the Tyrants had no way to return right now, but there was always a chance, always some sliver of possibility. If their Slade had returned from the _dead_, it was certainly possible that, just a universe-hop away, the Tyrants were already planning their revenge.

Red Raven didn't seem like the type to let such a humiliating defeat go easily.

He shivered slightly, trying to banish thoughts of her from his mind. He found himself wondering about the others, about Wilson and his apparent history with Red Robin. It was still surreal. A universe where Slade genuinely wanted to help him, turn him from an incorrect path. Robin filed away his mental notes on Swordstroke, starting with the man's last name, fully intending to add them to his Slade research later.

And the others... he'd have to update their villain casefiles to include them. For a brief moment Robin was acutely aware of the absurdity of it all—of having to legitimately add "Evil Counterpart from an alternate universe" into their lexicon of baddies—before his trained analytical mind nonchalantly started composing the entry on... well, himself.

So many things about the other him were different... and yet almost as many things remained the same. He had still been raised by Batman. He had still found his way to Jump City. And, somehow, he and Starfire had still found each other. Robin recalled Blackfire's feral excitement, her unpredictable mood swings, her bloodthirst and battle-eagerness, and thought... yes. She was _exactly_ the kind of girl his other self would go for.

"What are you thinking about?"

Robin looked down at Starfire, nestled comfortably against his chest as they lay together on the couch. Her radiant red hair spilled onto the cushions around them. One warm orange hand rested gently on his right wrist, and he wanted very much to hold it—if said wrist was not currently wrapped up in bandages and tucked into a sling and such an action would cause him no small amount of pain right then.

He sighed heavily. "I'm worried," he admitted.

"About?" she prompted.

"We shut the door to the Tyrants' world before, back when we retrieved Kilowatt. But they found another way in." His good hand shifted, so he could run his fingers through her hair. "If they did it once, they can do it again."

"And we will stop them," Starfire declared confidently, interrupting him. Robin's eyes refocused on her face, to see her meet his gaze with bold, faith-filled eyes. "Just as we did today," she continued.

He smiled faintly. "You sound so sure."

"We are heroes. It is what we do," she said, giving a little shrug of her shoulders.

Robin chuckled. "And that sounds like something I would say."

"Many years of knowing you," she quipped lightly. Her expression took on a twinge of worry. "There is something else?" she discerned, spying something in Robin's face that told of further unsettled thoughts.

Perceptive as ever. Robin settled back into the cushions, sighing again.

"It's just weird... how alike we are. I mean, he's a lot more callous and selfish—" Robin said, "—and he doesn't seem like he cares much about anything." He bit his lip. "But that pain he hides, that anger at the world... I relate to it. And..." His voice dropped even softer. "I understand it."

He turned his face, mumbling a little into his shoulder.

"I guess I'm just wondering... what exactly is it that makes us different? Chance? Circumstances? I just—"

He stopped, seeing Starfire shaking her head. Her hand drifted up to touch his cheek gently.

"You could never be like the Red Robin," she told him.

"How do you know?" he asked, even as the words warmed his heart to the core.

She beamed at him. "Because you choose not to be. You choose to be the hero, to see the good in this world that is worth saving and to do your best to protect the innocent, so that no one would suffer as you have." Her features tightened, faint displeasure appearing in her expression. "The Red Robin is a jerk who takes out his resentment on the rest of the world."

Robin laughed. "You know, 'you' weren't that pleasant either." Suddenly anxious, he straightened up a little and asked, "He—the other me I mean—he didn't do or say anything... _inappropriate_ to you, did he?"

Starfire blushed and seemed abruptly very interested in something past him. "Why do you ask?"

"Just checking," he said.

Sheepish, the Tamaranian princess rested her chin on Robin's collar. "He did make a comment about our... assumed virginity."

Robin felt heat rush to his cheeks and his heart give a weak little stutter. "Oh," he said awkwardly. "Is that—I mean—Does—does it bother—?" He cleared his throat with a pointed cough. "You know, we never got to finish our date yesterday."

Grinning impishly, Starfire tilted her head. "Oh?"

A little more confidently now, Robin smiled and continued. "And I was thinking... we're already on the couch so... movie and popcorn?" he suggested. Quieter and hesitantly, as if testing the waters, he added, "And then... and then anything you want?"

She propped herself up, beaming down at him with affection.

"Your proposal is accepted," she whispered, before melting into him for a kiss.

His good arm wrapped around her and a contented sigh went up from him as her body molded into his. The morning sunlight from the window, from the fresh new day, beamed in on them from the window, and the calm seas and clear blue sky signaled a peaceful afternoon to follow.

In their dimension at least, for a while, all was well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BOOOOKEEEEEEENDSS.
> 
> I do have a sequel in the WIP stage but it might be a while before you see it. In the meantime, please drop a comment if you liked this one and thank you all for reading!


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